Trial Consultants/Litigation Strategists offer a wide array of services to help you in planning and strategizing for trial. A majority of the services are hereinafter-mentioned:

Community Attitude Surveys
These surveys attempt to determine the effect of publicity on the local jury pool. Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist conducts media content analysis and community attitude surveys to gauge what people and leaders in a particular venue and potential jury pool may think about your "hypothetical" case, and how they may decide the case. This service is more prevalent in criminal matters, and can be extremely expensive.

In-Depth Focus Groups
The Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist spends the day with a representative sample of potential jurors and attorneys are invited to "present their case". The Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist acts as a facilitator to skew the decision against our client in an effort to determine what issues are important to the jurors and how to strengthen our case. There is a question and answer period, and a deliberation period. Jurors discuss what issues are important and which aren't, themes and analogies, liability and apportionment, damage potential and/or settlement value, witness evaluation, and evidence evaluation. Based on the research, the Trial Consultant will offer various strategies to implement at Mediation/Trial. This service is usually approximately $10,000-15,000, and costs are not included.

Informal Focus Group
Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist meets with jurors to discover what is important to potential jurors, how they would decide the case, any analogies or themes that the jurors believes would be helpful, and their reactions to various arguments or problem areas. Approximately 90% of the same information is gleaned from this research as in a Formal or In-depth Focus Group, with the exception of the evaluation of the attorneys' presentations. This service is quite popular in that it saves time and money by not requiring the attorneys' presence. The attorney client will receive a report analyzing the research and suggesting various strategies. Said report is usually 20-40 pages in length, and this service value is approximately $5,000.00.

Web-based Focus Group
This service is relatively new in keeping with the fast paced busy life style of Americans and the new technology available to us. The advantages of such a technique is that there are No time constraints for jurors, allowing the Trial Consultant to reach a greater variety of people, including professionals who can log onto the computer at their convenience. There are No incidental costs to the client for this service, and the Jurors are inevitably more Honest and Open because this is an anonymous interaction, thus, no one sitting there passing judgment, intimidating the juror, or causing the juror to feel shy and unsure about vocalizing opinions and concerns. There is one disadvantage when using this technique, and that is that it is quite difficult to limit the participants by venue. The Web-based Focus Group attempts to address this issue, and it is usually $1,000 to $3,000 for facilitating, analysis, and a report compiling research.

Mock Trial
This focuses on the big picture rather than problem areas, themes, or what is important to the jurors. It is a huge time commitment and enormously expensive. Trial Consultants/Litigation Strategists only recommend Mock Trials in extreme cases being that most of the same information can be accomplished via another technique.

Witness Preparation
Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist works one-on-one with the witness in order to make him/her more relaxed, likeable to the jurors, believable, and persuasive using various relaxation techniques, practicing cross-examination, working on demeanor and communication skills, and shaping attitude. This service is available both for Deposition and for Trial, and Wardrobe is also discussed.

Demonstrative Evidence
Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist assists trial attorneys with the preparation of visual aides for jury trials. By sifting through all of the pertinent documents and case facts, and by discovering the jurors' proclivities, we can recommend what type of demonstrative evidence would be most effective, what charts should be made, what documents should be blown up, what color choice would have the best affect, and if any animations or power points are necessary. The Trial Consultant Makes Suggestions…. Someone else actually Creates the animations and boards.

Case Analysis and Strategy
Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist works closely with the Litigation team and client to develop effective themes, analogies, and questions to demonstrate key arguments and devise plans that will enable us to counteract the problem areas. Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist can recommend a settlement strategy that would encourage the opposition to settle the case before it went to the jury by using the knowledge gained about potential jurors attitudes toward the case in web-based focus groups. By obtaining some general information about the arbitrator or mediator, together with a web-based focus group analysis of the pertinent issues, the Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist can determine how to "argue" the case in the most effective manner. The way we approach an arbitration/mediation is significantly different from that of a trial although this technique is also helpful for bench trials. This service is often employed for Mediation, Arbitration, Negotiation, Settlement, as well as Trial.

Mediation Power Point/Settlement Videos
The Trial Consultant suggests various techniques to implement during the litigation process depending on the particular facts and issues in the case. For example, an Educational video may be utilized in order to help the Judge, Mediator, or Jury understand a complex issue, and an Emotional video, such as a Day in the Life Video, may be produced in order to affect the amount of damages awarded in a case.

Opening Statement
Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist assists in the preparation of opening/closing statements to properly structure sentences and paragraphs, choose effective words and use appropriate tone to have the most impact. Often, the approach and emphasis of an opening or closing statement can determine how the jury will react, what they will focus on or believe, and predispose them to a particular outcome. The Trial Consultant can also suggest an underlying theme, provide basic story and outline, restructure sentences for optimal effect, and evaluate and rehearse attorney presentation.

Theme Analysis
You need a theme. Themes are crucial to any case for a number of reasons, but most importantly to give the jury something to relate to, to hold on to, to understand and "feel", and to anchor. The trial consultant is trained to apply psychology to delve into the psyche of the potential jurors and help implement various strategies before or during trial in order to structure and hopefully win the case. Psychology is not an exact science, but every little edge helps.

Voir Dire Questions
Many trial experts believe that voir dire and opening statement are where the case is won or lost. Questions are not random. A lot of thought should go into the information sought, both of a general nature, and case specific. The Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist recommends appropriately worded questions and analogies to help ferret out the underlying attitudes and values of the jury venire.

Jury Selection
The Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist attends voir dire with trial counsel to evaluate juror responses, body language, attitudes, to assist the attorney in selecting the most favorably disposed jury possible. Jurors are NOT based solely on Demographics and Stereotypes, but should be selected based on Life Experiences and Value Beliefs. This service is approximately $3,000 per day.

Jury Shadowing
Trial Consultant/Litigation Strategist is an observer in the courtroom during opening, directing/crossing witnesses, and closing to evaluate the jury, including what they choose to write down, their facial expressions and body language. This helps predict what is important to them, what they believe, and what the trial attorney needs to address (make more clear, stress, counteract, or rebut). Some suggestions are made based on matching arguments with Juror life experiences.