June 2021 Bar Bulletin
If you have ever watched mock jurors discuss one of your cases in a focus group, you have likely noticed something vital to how people process information that includes physical injury, deception, discrimination, or unfair behavior. They focus on the negative — whether it is something harmful or unfair someone may have done, or the unsavory conclusion that a party or its witnesses are being dishonest. They rarely talk about the five witnesses who were believable.
In a recent King County Zoom jury selection, a potential juror struggled to answer whether she would be able to be fair and impartial to the defendant or unfairly influenced...