An unprecedented number of potential lawsuits have emerged targeting employers’ actions and responsibilities regarding coronavirus workplace safety measures. A recent Vinson & Company national survey has found that both employers’ and employees’ behaviors matter in attributing responsibility to employers concerning the coronavirus.
A trial by jury has always been predicated on the availability of citizens to serve as jurors. And while most U.S. citizens over the age of 18 are technically eligible, a variety of other considerations limit the pool from which actual jurors are selected. Not least of which are individuals’ willingness and ability to serve.
As we look toward a future in which the pandemic begins to recede, the economy begins to recover, and our system of justice resumes its functions, it is necessary to ask: What will the impact of the coronavirus be on a trial by jury? How will it affect jurors’ attitudes and beliefs? And most importantly, who will show up to serve – and what does that mean for litigators and their clients?
A panel of prospective jurors is brought into the courtroom. The first step in selecting the jury begins; the court inquires into who can or cannot serve for the anticipated length of the trial. Some venire members request to be excused citing hardships such as financial concerns, medical conditions or caretaking responsibilities.
But, are there reasons beyond the obvious that influence hardship requests? And might these reasons cause the final hardship-qualified pool to be biased in any way?
David Perlut, Vice President at Vinson & Company, will be a panel discussant at the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms’ (NAMWOLF) annual meeting on September 24, 2019.
A jury is seated. They are instructed not to discuss the case until all the evidence has been presented. They are instructed not to do any outside research on the case, the parties, the attorneys, the issues in dispute.
Do jurors follow these instructions? If not, would they admit it? How many have violated the court’s directives? And why?
Dr. Norma Silverstein, Senior Vice President at Vinson & Company, will be a panel discussant for the 2018 Federal Bar Council Ethics for Social Media CLE in New York City on June 7.
Miami, FL, March 26, 2018 – Vinson, pioneers in the fields of jury and trial strategy research, has today announced the opening of its newest offices in Miami, Florida. The new office is located in Miami Beach.
Steve Paterson, President and CEO of Vinson, and David Perlut, Vinson’s Vice President, will head up the new office. Together they bring over 50 years of experience to South Florida.
Jurors begin forming impressions of attorneys from the very moment they begin to interact with them – which, typically, is during voir dire. And the impressions they form tend to be related to a discrete set of factors. Importantly these factors are all within counsel’s control.
Indeed, lawyers can create the impression they want jurors to have of them through how they conduct their voir dire.
It would be an understatement to say that this election season has been unlike any other. But regardless of who prevails, it is almost certain that scholars will agonize over what it means for years to come.
What is less mysterious is how two of the key political figures in this drama were able to garner levels of support that shocked the political establishment, the media, and the electorate.
Social media platforms and other online databases offer trial teams access to unprecedented amounts of detailed, publicly-available information about prospective jurors. How this information can be leveraged to assist counsel during the jury selection process, however, is a thorny issue that raises a host of questions.
With over 8,000 smoking and health cases filed and more than 50 that have gone to trial in the Florida courts, we have helped our clients prevail in key cases and worked closely with them to craft continued winning trial strategies.
In conjunction with The American Lawyer, Vinson & Company sponsored an interactive webcast with industry experts regarding how to use online jury research to make the overall process of case preparation more efficient, more practical and more insightful. Click below for more information and a link to an on-demand version of the program.
When Swiss Re needed to know what New Yorkers would think about the World Trade Center attack and Insurance Coverage issues, we created new and innovative Jury Research procedures and tools to help them win their case.
Our research helped obtain a full defense verdict for Starr International Company after a three-week jury trial involving multi-billion dollar claims made by American International Group (AIG).
When the Beverly Hills Unified School District and a group of oil and gas companies was sued by over 1,000 plaintiffs alleging injuries due to exposure to Benzene, PCBs and other chemicals, our research helped the defense team successfully dismiss the case on summary judgment.
In a dispute involving 37 Missouri hospitals suing the major tobacco companies, our research led to a complete defense verdict after twelve years of litigation.
David Perlut, Vice President at Vinson & Company, was a featured speaker at the 2015 NCMIC Defense Counsel Seminar in Scottsdale, Arizona. His presentation covered jury psychology, jury research techniques and tools, and juror perceptions of insurance coverage disputes.
When the government needed to know how jurors would react to a racially motivated church bombing that had occurred nearly 30 years earlier in Birmingham, Alabama, our research contributed to the design of trial and jury selection strategies that resulted in a conviction in the case.
Dr. Vinson is widely considered the "founding father" of jury and trial research, and is internationally recognized as the world's leading expert in the field. He has founded three successful companies in the industry, two of which were acquired by NYSE-listed corporations. Dr. Vinson has spent the last 35 years providing valuable insights and strategic recommendations to top trial attorneys and Fortune 500 companies about juror behavior, and his record of success is unparalleled. He has worked on hundreds of civil and criminal trials, including Pennzoil v. Texaco, USFL v. NFL, Oklahoma City bombing, the DuPont Plaza Hotel and MGM Grand Hotel fires, Dalkon Shield litigation, the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and the World Trade Center insurance case.
Dr. Vinson spent a number of years as a respected academic, serving on the faculty of the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and was Chairman of the Marketing Department at the USC Marshall School of Business from 1975 until 1980. In addition, he has been a professor of business at Louisiana State University, a Visiting Professor of Law at Tulane University, and a member of the faculty of the Salzburg Seminar in Salzburg, Austria, where he taught a course in International Jurisprudence with Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
Dr. Vinson was appointed to the Advisory Council, National Institutes of Health by President Bush and served as the United States Representative to the South Pacific Commission under both Presidents Bush and Clinton. In addition, Dr. Vinson was Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Legal Reform of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and was Commissioner of the California Commission on Judicial Performance. He has served on numerous other corporate, educational, and professional boards, including the UCLA Board of Visitors and the World Board of Governors of the United Service Organization.
Dr. Vinson has authored and contributed to 10 books and more than 50 articles on the subject of jury psychology and jury research techniques. He has been quoted or interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Time, The Economist, and has appeared on CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, CBS This Morning, Dateline NBC, ABC Evening News, CNN, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Nightline, Larry King Live, and The O'Reilly Factor.
Dr. Vinson holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology and Market Research from the University of Colorado; an M.S. in Market Research and Consumer Behavior from UCLA; and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Arizona.
Stephen Paterson is President and CEO of Vinson & Company and has more than 25 years of experience in the field of trial research. He began his career as the Director of Marketing at Litigation Sciences, Inc, the first jury research firm in the industry.
Mr. Paterson has served as a litigation strategist in some of the most well-known trials in recent legal history. These cases have included major business disputes such the World Trade Center insurance coverage litigation, which resulted in multi-billion dollar victories for Swiss Re and Lloyd's of London. In addition to providing jury trial assistance to Fortune 500 companies, he was also the lead trial researcher in the O.J. Simpson civil trial for the Goldman family. In legal actions taken by the government, he has worked on the Oklahoma City bombing case, on the case against the accounting firm Arthur Anderson, and with the successful prosecutions of former Louisiana governor Edwin W. Edwards, and U.S. Congressman Walter Tucker. In addition, he has lectured and served on the faculty of numerous prosecution training institutes including the New York Prosecutors Training Institute.
His litigation experience includes cases in State and Federal courts throughout the country, in U.S. Territories, and in a major tax fraud matter in Australia.
Mr. Paterson graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Dr. Silverstein has more than 25 years of experience in the trial research industry. She has served alongside Dr. Donald Vinson and Steve Paterson as a litigation strategist in some of the most well-known trials in recent legal history. These cases have included Fortune 500 companies across the United States. She assisted Daniel Petrocelli and his trial team during the O.J. Simpson civil trial for the Goldman family. Along with Mr. Paterson, she worked on the Oklahoma City bombing case, in the case against the accounting firm Arthur Anderson, and assisted with the successful prosecutions of former Louisiana governor Edwin W. Edwards and U.S. Congressman Walter Tucker. She has also assisted in jury selection in capital murder trials for several State Attorneys General and has worked with the DOJ on civil rights issues, including the Len Davis trial in New Orleans. In addition, she has served on the faculty of prosecution training institutes including the New York Prosecutors Training Institute.
Dr. Silverstein obtained her undergraduate education at the University of Missouri, postgraduate education in Statistics and Psychometrics at CSULB, Ed.D. (ABD) & Ph.D. at USC and Psy.D. From California Coast University.
Mr. Perlut has nearly 20 years of experience as a litigation strategist. He has been responsible for developing and presenting strategic recommendations for crafting enhanced, persuasive communications based on the analysis and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative research findings. He has advised clients on jury selection using multi-dimensional profiling models designed to identify juror bias during the voir dire process. He has evaluated and assisted fact and expert witnesses preparing to testify at trial. And he has created and executed sophisticated jury research methodologies, designed survey instruments and procedures, and managed all aspects of multi-phase projects for clients and their counsel.
Mr. Perlut graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Psychology and Political Science.
For over 15 years, Ms. Wu has assisted high profile clientele including Fortune 500 companies, the US Government, corporate professionals and celebrities involved in civil and criminal trials with jury selection, trial strategy, crisis and risk management and communications consulting. Prior to Vinson & Company, she worked as Management Consultant for Campaigners, an Inc. 500 sales and marketing services company for clients such as Motorola and Fujifilm.
Ms. Wu received her undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (cum laude, Departmental Honors - top 10%, and Phi Beta Kappa) and an MBA from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business (Beta Gamma Sigma honors).
Dr. Katherine Vinson has over 10 years of litigation experience and is a social psychologist with a specialty in juror behavior and decision making. Her expertise is based on measures of juror attitudes, experiences, and behaviors which are used to develop jury prediction models. She has experience in major commercial litigation including the Lucent Technologies securities litigation, and contract matters involving CSX, DirecTV and Quest. She also conducted research in patent and intellectual property matters for Monsanto and DuPont, and she assisted the government in the prosecution of Len Davis (New Orleans Police Corruption) and members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (kidnappers of Patty Hearst).
Dr. Vinson holds a B.B.A. in Business Administration from Southern Methodist University and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Claremont Graduate University.
