Wealthy litigants can purchase social-scientific tools to shape jury composition and trial messaging.

Evidence

Today, attorneys in major trials often hire jury consultants to assist them: These consultants convene focus groups and conduct community attitude surveys to assess public opinion and help in deciding what sorts of persons they want on a jury. Attorneys may try out arguments in front of “mock juries” before trial and employ “shadow juries,” people similar to those serving on the jury, who are hired to provide daily feedback on how the arguments presented in court might have been received by the jury. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1361

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the course’s equality/fairness thread: jury selection as a site where resources translate into procedural advantage. — connects to: Resource disparities between litigants favor wealthy defendants in civil cases — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1038
• SEED: Angle: ‘The Shadow Jury’ — an essay on how behavioral consulting is quietly privatizing the Sixth Amendment’s promise of an impartial jury.

Broader Connections

• Resource disparities between litigants favor wealthy defendants in civil cases #qualifies (0.95) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1038