Getting a Fair Shake from a Jury

Robert Blanchard

Attorney

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With all the Republican and corporate propaganda that goes on every year without ceasing, it gets ever harder to get a fair jury trial in an injury case. The notion of the "frivolous lawsuit" has saturated jury panels across the country and has a negative influence in every jury trial nationwide. No doubt every plaintiff attorney that has had the pleasure of going to trial in the past few years has had to suffer through at least a few complaints on every jury panel about frivolous lawsuits, outrageous damage awards, and the harmful effects on our economy and our society of each. I can't count how many times I have heard at least one juror on every panel mention the infamous McDonalds coffee case in each of my last ten trials.

By the same token, anger against corporations, attorneys in general, and those who dodge responsibility generate plenty of juror distrust against defendants and defense attorneys. Both sides now begin trial in the unenviable position of having to overcome healthy doses of juror skepticism and doubt, and every attorney faces an uphill battle just to establish credibility, which is the biggest ingredient of success in trial.