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A Description of Noelle C. Nelson, Ph.D.'s Services

As a trial consultant, I work with all aspects of litigation, from helping attorneys develop a dynamic case theme, to preparing witnesses for deposition and trial, to honing opening and closing statements for maximum juror impact, to setting up and running focus groups, to designing solid trial strategy including use of visuals and graphics.

I prepare witnesses (lay or expert) by using videotaped role-play, which I have found to be very efficient and effective. Videotape recording equipment and operation is provided at no additional cost.

My fee for these consulting services (with the exception of fees for focus groups) is billed hourly, regardless of what I am doing. Travel is billed at 50%. Focus groups represent a different category of work, and thus have a different fee schedule. All fees are available upon request.

Focus groups are enormously helpful because they give you the average juror's perspective, those "jurors" being selected to be demographically representative of your venue , on issues, witnesses, experts, attorney strategy, case themes, evidence, damages, and so forth in a way that allows you to see the problems before they arise, and counter them with alternatives that will work. Focus groups can also be used to facilitate voir dire and more effective jury selection. For example, a focus group can give you:

• an understanding of the demographics of the jury pool and how those play in favorable jury selection (significance of different cultures, ethnicities, genders, ages, etc. to your case)
  
• an opportunity to see how the various segments of the jury pool population will view your case (issues, damages, etc.)
  
• an opportunity to hear from these different segments specifically what would make your case stronger in their view, what would make your case more persuasive (issues, arguments, points, themes, graphics, etc.).

A focus group is also very useful to determine whether a case should go to trial, or whether settlement is the wiser course. A focus group can result in compelling points to bring up at time of settlement.

In a full day focus group, plaintiff and defense each gets 1 ½ hours to present their case (including any witness testimony, video clips, etc.). One attorney is required to present plaintiff's case, one to present defense, and the mock jurors don't know which you represent until after they've deliberated and given their comments (if even at that time).

It is critical that both sides must be presented strongly, if anything - the opposing side should be even stronger, since what is sought from the focus group is constructive criticism, not pats on the head. After the presentation portion of the focus group, the lawyers are excused from the room, and I conduct the deliberations portion of the day with the jurors. This may be videotaped and/or viewed by the lawyers through a one-way mirror. The deliberations portion is crucial, for it is then that the jurors "deliberate" on a series of well-targeted questions provided by the lawyer. Such questions should include not only verdict questions, but also specific questions such as "What did you think of X argument?" or "If you had known Y, would that have made a difference to you?" Given such questions, the jurors will literally "fix" your case for you, in that they will show you the weaknesses and make astonishingly good suggestions on how to compensate for or correct those weaknesses.

Following the deliberations portion the lawyers have the opportunity to ask final questions. I then write up a report of my specific thoughts, comments and trial strategy recommendations based on what I observed during the focus group.

The number of jurors booked varies greatly. 12 – 14 demographically representative jurors will give you a good estimate of community opinion, and is the most common number of jurors booked for focus groups. I have worked with focus group juries as big as 42 members, in which case I work with an assistant and split the jurors at time of deliberation into 2 groups. The number of jurors depends on what you want to accomplish.

The location for a focus group is at your discretion. Focus groups can be held in a colleague's conference room, with a smaller adjacent room for viewing the monitor during live-feed videotaped deliberations, a hotel facility, a specialized facility with one-way mirrors and viewing rooms, or a law college's mock courtroom.

Videotaping can be as simple as putting your camcorder on a tripod, and just letting it run during deliberations, or hiring a professional videographer. Both methods work just fine.

Focus groups are generally held on the weekend (Saturdays) so that we can schedule the same type of working people as will show up in your jury pool.

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For more information, or to book a focus group with Dr. Nelson, please email us nnelson@dr.noellenelson.com , or telephone Dr. Nelson at 310-589-4923. Thank you!