As lawyers, we can sometimes get sucked into our cases. Once we bring a case in the door, we start doing research, investigating, and bringing in all the facts and details. We bury ourselves with all of this information that we can get a little lost at times.
As you’re preparing cases, remember, a focus group is a great system you can set up to prepare for any kind of claim, whether it’s a medical malpractice case, a premises case, or a car wreck case. Once you’ve learned the nuances of setting up focus groups, it will give you the clarity, certainty, and confidence you need.
Now, there has been this big missing block of information about what a focus group is and how it works. Most of the time, what trial lawyers automatically think about when talking about focus groups are the adversarial mock trial groups. Those are great focus groups but it takes a lot of time and energy to put those together. Well, I prefer to do the smaller ones because they’re easier to manage and it’s also a great way to gather information before having to do one of the larger adversarial mock focus groups.
In this episode, I’m going to discuss the basics of focus groups as well as what you should be expecting from future episodes as we get down to the nitty-gritty of how to set up focus groups. The goal is to provide you with a how-to guide so you can start running your own focus groups, or improve your focus group skills, if you’re doing them already.
In this episode, you will hear:
- What is a focus group?
- What a virtual focus group looks like
- Confidentiality forms for everyone’s protection
- What you get from focus groups: clarity, certainty, and confidence
- Running multiple focus groups
- Different styles of presenting information
- The importance of planting good questions
- More details about focus groups that you can expect from future episodes
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Episode Transcript:
Now here’s Elizabeth. Hello and welcome. This is Elizabeth Larrick and you’re listening to an episode of Trial Lawyer [00:01:00] Prep. This podcast is designed and created for trial lawyers working with difficult clients. problematic cases and taking those difficult and problematic cases to trial. The goal of this podcast is to help you connect with juries and clients in order to improve your abilities in the courtroom.
In this episode, we’re going to be talking about Focus groups and getting a little bit in depth with focus groups, but also kind of laying out what you can expect in this podcast about episodes that will go into detail about specifics on focus groups. We will talk a lot about focus groups. And so my goal is to always provide you a how to, how can you take this back and start running your own focus groups or improve your focus group skills.
So, without any further ado, let’s talk a little bit about what is a focus group. Many times we hear presentations, CLE [00:02:00] webinars about really large cases or even decent sized cases and trials where they talk about, Oh, well, we learned about this in a focus group or focus groups told us that we shouldn’t use this word.
And that’s really helpful to know that’s where they got the information, but there’s generally big missing block of information about what it is, what is it, what is a focus group and how are you doing it and all these kinds of questions that always pop up in my mind. And I started out focus groups learning from Mr.
Keenan and my year that I spent with his law firm and doing different trials of different types of cases. And What we found, or rather, I should say my drawback, my conclusion from that was, wow, this is a really great system that can go with any kind of claim. So we had a medical malpractice case, a premises case, and then a car wreck case.
All of which had different facets and different [00:03:00] facts and those kinds of things, but using focus groups to really continue to prepare the case. So that’s kind of my background on focus groups and just kind of jumping in at the ground level and then after that time really building on that information.
I taught focus groups in the Kenan Trial Institute for a little while and then of course been running them myself in my law firm. Let’s just talk from a very basic level. What is a focus group? Well, focus group is where you’re going to get. eight, 10, sometimes 12 people together in a room, you’re going to show them a presentation and then you’re going to ask questions.
The variety of ways to run a focus group. There’s just tons of ways to do it, but from a most basic level, you’re getting a span of people together. And you’re just putting something in front of them and asking them really basic questions and just getting their opinions, their feedback, what is it that they see, you know, what questions pop up in their mind, [00:04:00] where’s their confusion.
And most of the time, you know, these folks are just going to give you what they see and what they hear. They’re going to give you some really great feedback on maybe things that you’re not seeing. Maybe they’re going to confirm things that you believe. But they’re mainly going to give it back to you with the way that they see it, their point of view.
Which is super helpful when we’re preparing cases. We don’t really want to get lost. We want to make sure we’re always keeping that front and center when we’re preparing a case. And focus groups do a great job of bringing you back and using those along the way. We also with focus groups can run them in person where we had the pandemic, all of my focus groups were in person once the pandemic hits transitioning for me and my business in the way that I do focus groups, moving them to virtual, which was a mental challenge on one hand, but also a learning curve, just having to learn that.
way of doing it, that style, the different trade offs that [00:05:00] come when you’re virtual versus in person. I still love the virtual format and right now, hopefully we’ll get back to doing some in person focus groups in the few months to come. But of course, always putting health and safety first. Virtual, using the zoom to get people together in person, using, you know, a large conference room to get people together.
But she always wanted making sure you’re recording everything and that way you can go back and watch it again. You know, you want to preserve the things that they’re saying and feedback they’re having. As we always happen sometimes with cases, we get started, we maybe run a folks group, a couple months go by, and you get back into the case and you forgot what they said.
So always recording things to help remember and go back and refresh your memory. And just really simple things, confidentiality forms, making sure we’re. Staying, confidentiality forms to keep everybody protected. These are real cases and live people. And you just want to make sure that folks are aware that [00:06:00] if they do get called for jury service and they do hear the case, that they could go ahead and raise their hand and stand up and have a conference with the judge and let them know.
And of course, for your purposes of being a lawyer and running these things, it’s pretty important for your client as well to have that confidentiality protection. So you run the focus group, meaning you present your presentation, you ask the questions, you record everything, and then what do you get? This is probably one of the biggest questions that I get about focus groups.
What do you get? What can you get? We talked about clarity, certainty, and confidence. So let’s talk a little bit about those really quickly. And more importantly, why, what brings you to doing a focus group? For me personally, it’s just, I can get stumped. Maybe there’s an unusual set of facts or maybe there’s an unusual claim.
That I’m just not really certain of or really what people may think about a particular piece of the [00:07:00] case or I’m running up against the case and I’m getting a lot of pushback from the other side And I’m just wondering am I missing something? What is it that I I’m not saying focus groups will help you with that, right?
So clarity with focus groups, we can sometimes as lawyers get sucked in to our case, bring a case in the door and start doing research and start investigating and looking at background stuff and bringing in all these details and these facts and just bury ourselves with all of this information. We can kind of get a little lost at times and that’s where focus groups will help with the clarity and.
Simplicity. And they’ll just give it to you simply. You give them a whole heap of facts and they’ll just give it back to you what they think is the most simple explanation or the simple way to describe things. That’s so helpful. I think as far as when we think about trial presentation or even mediation presentation or even motion practice, if you can [00:08:00] really.
clarity and be able to simply state what your case is about in two sentences. It’s really helpful for the judge and the opposing counsel and anybody else who’s coming in to the case as either a player or as somebody who’s going to be coming in either as a mediator as well. The other thing that focus groups can really help you with is certainty.
A lot of times we come across new sets of facts or things that people We haven’t encountered before, or for me, a different set of facts that I haven’t encountered before, and it’s causing me a little bit of uncertainty. And doubt is really where the opposing side always loves to wiggle in there and just create more and more doubt for you about what your case is, and how much it’s worth, and what your client is going to be like in front of the jury, and Running focus groups will give you that certainty and I say focus groups because it takes more than one.
A lot of times people say, well, I’ll just run one and I’ll be done and sometimes that works. I mean, [00:09:00] rarely that works because you see they’ll give something back to you. It will give you a piece of feedback and then you’re like, wow, well, if they make this change, is that what they need? Is that what they want?
Is that going to. Really make things better for me. And most of the time you want to run one more focus group just to, again, give that certainty, make sure that what you’re thinking is lining up with their point of view. And so more than one is always very helpful. Two, three, four. Wonderful. When you get up, we’re running multiple focus groups.
You really have to take a pretty structured approach about what you’re doing, watching the research that you’re getting, recording the data to make sure that you’re moving the needle. Wonderful. And you’re either giving yourself some certainty, getting clarity on presentation, other parts of the cases, because at times you can just keep running them to run them.
And sometimes that is what happened to me. Focus groups are a little bit second nature to me and I have a case in house that it’s stumping [00:10:00] me or I just can’t quite. Seem to get the confidence that I need. And so I’ve run four or five or six focus groups on the case when in reality, that’s probably a little cost prohibitive given the case, but it’s giving me the ability now looking back the learning focus groups more, but also having that moment now.
Wait a minute. I really need to, if I’m going to run multiple focus groups, let’s have a good plan here. Let’s measure what we’re doing and making sure that we’re being cost effective, we’re learning from these focus groups, and we’re moving the case forward and preparing it correctly. All that to be said, once you run focus groups, you’re really going to gain a lot more confidence in your case because you’re going to learn more about it.
We learn a lot as far as lawyers taking depositions and learning more facts and gathering more information and focus groups, they’re taking all that information and then they process it and give it back to you. That’s a new point of view that you’re getting. And so that to me always helps me give [00:11:00] me some confidence.
I’m on the right track. I’m not on the right track. It also gives me a lot of confidence in my presentation skills. in speaking to people and talking to complete strangers. One of the nice things about focus groups is you really learn to listen. You really learn how to ask questions well, and those skills really help.
When it comes to depositions, when it comes to picking a jury, when it comes to talking to clients, so helpful. And those are skills that really need to be done kind of in a trial and error, live situation. And that’s really what focus groups are. And so you get a lot of confidence in your case, but you also get a lot of confidence in the skills that you’re building along the way.
And you see how that transforms as you continue to focus groups. and how you’re able to speak to people, listen, and ask questions, and then be able to pinpoint things as well. Once you [00:12:00] get clarity and certainty and confidence, what does that mean for the actual case? Well, like we talked about, or like I talked about a little bit ago, sometimes you learn about the way that you’re putting the case together is confusing, or you’re including all these extra facts that you don’t really need.
Or maybe you’re missing facts that you really need. For example, having run several, several, several, several focus groups on car wrecks. Number one questions we always get if we don’t include in the presentation was the person wearing their seatbelt. Were there any drug or alcohol involved with any driver?
What was the weather like? Very important factors for people. And we’re getting things worked up and we may just look over those really simple facts, but Those are really big pieces of information that they want to know. If you don’t answer those questions, they may answer them for themselves, or they’re just going to be a hole that they’re going to wonder about, and generally when they wonder, they make the assumption against you.
[00:13:00] So, those are kind of some of those things that you start to learn and see presentation wise, and how to fill those gaps in your case. And then you can always go back. For example, sometimes we have a presentation where it’s an opening statement, and we run the opening statement more than once or twice, three times.
And again, they’re going to give feedback on what they understand, what they don’t understand, questions that they need to have answered in the opening statement. And those are great ones that are short, quick, and easy to keep doing, tweaking things to make sure you’re hitting the ball just like they want it.
Sometimes that’s what we have to do. Also, we talk about focus groups and. How do you get this information? I learned a lot about focus groups before I started. I went to seminars, books, and I really had this huge hesitation of just jumping in and that’s where I worked in an office where I was able to watch and observe and then when I worked with the Keenan Law Firm, you just basically, you know, Thrown in.
Like, we’re doing [00:14:00] this. You’re doing this. So, that’s sometimes what’s a little bit like, we’re kind of, as trial lawyers, can be a little bit risk averse because we’re worried about, well, how do we do it? And in my mind, when I think about focus groups, I get really excited because you get to be so creative.
There’s no perfect set way or style to do one. Most of the time when trial lawyers think about focus groups, we automatically think about the adversarial mock. focus group, the mock trial, where you’re putting it all out there and you have witnesses and you got a judge in there sometimes. And those are great focus groups and they take a lot of time and energy to put together.
I prefer to do some of the smaller ones because I think it’s a little bit easier to manage as a solo to be able to do some of the smaller ones. But I also think you can set them up style wise and get really good information before you have to do kind of one little larger adversarial mock focus groups ones.
And so we talk about styles, we’re really talking about ways of [00:15:00] presenting information. And we kind of already talked about doing opening statements. That’s a style. Just put your opening statement out there and ask questions. Or maybe just got a case that came in the door and you’re just going to give really quick snapshot of the facts and ask them what they think.
That’s the nice thing about focus groups when you’re doing it kind of in a free form style of, Hey, What is it that we want to learn? What’s the goal of the focus group? That’s where I always start when I’m planning. What’s my goal? What is it that I need to learn? What is it that I need to know? And what am I getting ready for?
Am I preparing for a deposition? Am I preparing for mediation? Am I preparing to file the case? My preparing for discovery. Okay. So all those things go into the planning of it and then creating that presentation style. Then of course creating the questions. Sometimes those questions are even more important than the presentation because you really want to make sure you’re planting good questions.
You’re asking good questions. Sometimes [00:16:00] just getting out of the way as well, depending on how. Talkative your group may be. There’s a lot of freedom. There’s a lot of movement and being able to set up focus groups and create different presentation styles. And that also gives you the ability to do shorter focus groups, meaning if you have one or two issues to do, maybe all you need is 30, 45 minutes.
Maybe you just need an hour. Maybe you’ve got kind of a little more complicated of an issue and you need to give more facts. The presentation needs to be longer. So maybe it needs to be an hour, two hours. And that’s also kind of the flexibility of Being able to, if you’ve got a smaller end case, then try to figure out how to do one in 30 minutes.
And that way, when you set up a focus group, you’re really looking at doing 4, 5, 6 cases. Hey, that’s really cost efficient to get all that stuff done in just 3 hours or 4 hours. One of the things that we’ll talk a lot about in future episodes is looking at the nitty gritty of how to set up focus groups.
And we’ll talk about the Zoom, doing virtual [00:17:00] focus groups, doing in person focus groups. What goes into the logistics of gathering people. Setting up how to keep a database of people, checking to make sure these are the people that say they are. And then also talking about how to create presentations and how to ask questions and what questions to ask.
And sometimes we’re probably going to take a good episode and talk about the things that can sabotage a focus group. And when I say sabotage, it could be secretly done. So we’ll definitely want to make sure that we help you with the how to, but also to avoid some of the easy mistakes to slip into because we’re advocates by nature.
That’s why we got into this. We want to help people, we want to be advocates and zealously represent people. And we kind of take that hat off for focus groups. So we will spend some time talking about that. We’ll also look at types of focus groups and how to fit those into different types of cases. So you, maybe you could take one [00:18:00] style and modify it for all the different types of cases that you have in your caseload.
We’ll also look at maybe specific types of questions that go with the Specific types of issues. And then naturally, I always love to interview other lawyers who have used focus groups in cases and we’ll talk to them about how they’re using focus groups. What was the problem that they had? How many did they run?
Was something that stuck out to them? And maybe either, you know, a helpful tip about gathering people or tracking people or how to organize all the data that you get after you do a focus group. And of course, we’ll always talk about maybe how to use the information that you get to Afterwards and program that plug that into the case and then how to plan for the next focus group after you run one if you’re going to do a series of focus groups.
So we’ve got a lot of really fun information and dialogue about focus groups coming up in this podcast. I hope that in this [00:19:00] episode, we’re able to kind of lay some real basic foundation about what is a focus group? Why are we running these things? Getting out of our old point of view and into a new point of view.
Learning about how to present to your jurors, but also what are you getting out of these focus groups from a high level, clarity, confidence, and certainty, how to run these things. I mean, what is the style of these presentations, which in my mind can feel endless and exciting, but I also know that can be a fearful for folks who haven’t started.
So like I said, I always want to have in my mind, this podcast is really a how to. Take things that you learn and go plug them in and set it up and try one of these things out. So, as we get ready for future episodes, we’ll definitely keep things in mind about how to’s for setting up, how to for presenting, how to for questions, benefits of virtual focus groups, benefits of in person focus groups, [00:20:00] and upcoming interviews with lawyers who have used focus groups in cases and getting a little how to from their perspective.
Well, thanks so much for joining and I hope that you tune in for future episodes about focus groups. As you know, this podcast is new and shiny and all support is greatly appreciated. If you haven’t done so, please subscribe on the Apple podcast app, Google podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen, write a five star rating and review.
And if you could share this with other trial lawyers, you think would benefit. Thanks again.
