Summary Jury Trial

Definition

Ten potential jurors are present for a brief voir dire. Each side is permitted two challenges so that the case is heard by a 6-person jury. No witnesses are present. The parties must be ready for trial with a trial brief and proposed instructions. The clients must be present to see the effect of their case on real jurors. Counsel summarizes testimony that would be anticipated and shows exhibits to the jury. Each side has one hour to present its case. After simple instructions, the jury renders an advisory verdict that can be either a consensus or the individual opinions of liability and damages.

Summary jury trials are useful when opposing attorneys do not agree about the outcome; a summary jury trial might provide enough indication of the outcome to facilitate a settlement. Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure concerning pre-trial conferences allows use of a summary jury trial to facilitate a settlement.

Summary juries are cost-effective and provide an excellent opportunity for lawyers to conduct post-trial interviews of jurors. If jurors use FactLogic, all the information that could be needed is available.

A case consists of one or more independent facts, one or more assertions, and the standard of proof called preponderance of evidence. (Two facts are independent if knowing that one fact exists does not change your judgment of the other fact.) An assertion is a statement to be proved - such as an allegation, charge, cause of action, hypothesis, etc. Independent facts are judged to evaluate assertions.  FactLogic provides the logical evaluation of  an assertion. An assertion is evaluated as the probability it is true. Compare an assertion to the preponderance of evidence.

You can easily create your case and evaluate it.

• Create Your Case.  Enter some case information, one or more assertions, and the independent facts.

• Evaluate Your Case. Assign the selected jurors. (FactLogic sends e-mail messages that invites them to evaluate the case and provides the Web address of the page on which they enter their judgments as probabilities.) Even though the jurors are collocated, they should not communicate. Factlogic combines multiple evaluations and provides the statistical conclusions.

1. Evaluation

Multiple jurors can evaluate facts and reach conclusions that are especially trustworthy and accurate. Jurors can be collocated or dispersed. FactLogic sends an e-mail message to each juror that contains a link to the evaluation page for your case. Each juror knows only the probabilities he/she enters. Jurors should evaluate the facts independently (i.e., without communication).

2. Analysis

Statistical analysis is appropriate for summary jury trials because attorneys need to know how accurately they have estimated the probability an assertion is true, and they need to compare the probability that an assertion is true to preponderance of evidence. FactLogic computes the average probability the assertion is true (from the participating jurors), and it computes an interval, that is centered on the average, that you can be 95% confident contains the average probability the assertion is true (from the population of jurors).

Summary

The attorneys can use FactLogic to organize, document, and present their case. Each juror can use FactLogic as would invited evaluators in a civil case.