Lawyers practicing in the litigation world need to conduct jury research in order to create the best-case presentation because at the end of the trial, it’s the jury that decides!
Jury research can come in many forms: mock juries, focus groups, big data surveys, or Ai simulations.
But why do lawyers use focus groups?
- Assistance with case valuation
- Test case themes and evidence
- Determine credibility of witnesses (fact witnesses and experts)
- Practice for presentation (opening statements or mediation statements)
- Decide whether to settle or go to trial
- Find attitudes, bias and assumptions to the case facts
- Help with simplifying legal definitions, jury instructions or scientific/medical terms
Smart lawyers understand they don’t think like jurors and therefore they need to find that information, i.e. what juror’s think, from focus groups.
Are you a lawyer or do you work for a lawyer who needs to find out what a potential juror would think about your case?
BUT you don’t have the case expense budget to hire a trial consultant? You are in the right place.
I have put together this step-by-step blog to assist lawyers who chose to do their own jury research or who may not have the case expense budget to allow assistance by trial consultants. Because I believe every lawyer – no matter their experience or pocketbook – should do focus groups before a taking their case to a jury.
Specifically, this blog is dedicated to virtual focus groups because they do not require a physical location which can significantly increase the cost of conducting jury research. Virtual focus groups are quick to set-up and effective at gathering the same feedback as an in person session.
Because there is a large amount of information, I split the ‘How To’ into two separate blog.
This blog covers:
- Step 1: Setting up your System
- Step 2: How to Get Participants for your Virtual Focus Groups
- Step 3: Screening and Selecting Participants
- Step 4: Planning and Preparing Your Presentation
- Step 5: Running Your Virtual Focus Group: Moderating To Get The Goods
- Step 6: Debriefing and Analyzing the Feedback to Assist Your Case
Here is a free download with extras to get you started.
Step 1: Set Up Your Virtual System
Before jumping into your first virtual focus group, it’s important to establish a foundation that can be repeated going forward.
What platform will you use to conduct your virtual meetings?
How will you pay participants?
What software program will you use to collect data and electronic signatures?
How will you communicate with potential participants?
- Phone Calls
- Text
The key to making decisions on your system is that it works for you and your staff, it’s repeatable and easy to manage. Don’t forget that potential participants are leery of being scammed and want to make sure they are dealing with a credible company.
Step 2: How To Get Participants for your Virtual Focus Group
Recruiting relevant and engaging participants is one of the essential elements of a focus group. You want to have participants that roughly match the demographics of your jury pool, and avoid people that regularly join focus group or market research. It can be very frustrating to conduct a focus group with participants from foreign countries or who are “focus groupers for life” with no real opinions of their own. Thus creating a recruiting process to avoid these pitfalls and collect the folks you want to join can take time.
Getting participants can depend on several factors:
- How many participants do you want?
- How many hours will your focus group be?
- What time of the day will you conduct the focus group?
- How much will you pay each participant for their time?
If you are just starting out, you may choose a smaller group of participants in order to get comfortable with presenting and asking questions in a neutral manner on the virtual platform.
Remember more participants does not equal more feedback because of time constraints. For example, if you run a two-hour virtual focus group and have 14 participants, you would be limited to ask one question of each person (estimating 4-5 minutes for per person) after a 30 minute presentation. You will want to ask more than one question!
I believe a successful focus group needs a variety of people from all backgrounds – mix of ages, education, political views, martial status, jobs and kids/no kids.
When I first started doing virtual focus groups, I had small groups (4-5 participants) at different times of the day and different amounts in incentives in order to test what worked best for recruiting. You may also do this type of testing to see what works best for your location.
Another big factor in getting participants is advertising your focus group. Once you decide on the when/how much/how long part, you need to tell the world to get folks to apply.
You can use paid (or free versions) advertising like:
- Craigslist
- Nextdoor
- Indeed
- Ziprecruiter
- your local newspaper
You can use free job boards like:
It’s critical to post your focus group job with adequate time for folks to see and apply. I would recommend seven to ten days (preferable include a weekend). Don’t hesitate to post on several locations, especially if you are using free platforms.
Step 3: Screening & Selecting Participants
Once you have posted your focus group job, you will start receiving applications or responses from potential participants. I find it helpful to use a form or spreadsheet to organize the information you gather (name, email, education, job, etc) into one place.
There are several free options available:
With all the information in one spot, you or your staff can review and select participants to join your focus group. Be careful not to just select the first people to apply because they may not meet your demographic requirements. This is where using the forms can make it easy for you to review the responses and select individuals that fit your criteria. Your criteria can be as simple as only individuals living in a certain city or state or as complicated as only people ages 50-55 who worked or work in the banking industry. As a general rule, you want to avoid people who are related or live in the same household because they may not be as forthcoming with their opinions.
Be sure to leave yourself or your staff plenty of time to communicate with selected participants. Whether you are emailing or calling participants, you may have additional screening questions that go beyond basic demographic information (i.e. Where do you gather your daily news? What books have you recently read?). Plus most people have jobs, families and life occurring so they are not constantly looking and responding to your communications. I estimate to spend 10-14 days selecting and communicating with participants in order to get a focus group filled with folks meeting your criteria.
As part of your screening process I suggest telling participants what you expect as part of their participation and what they can expect in joining. For example, telling people you will require them to keep their video on for the entire focus group, sign a confidentiality agreement, or you expect them to give their attention to the focus group therefore can’t be at work or driving (Yes, it has happened that a person was driving and trying to attend!). This can assist in eliminating participants who do not want to actively engage but rather just make some extra cash.
With this information you can properly set-up and gather participants for your virtual focus group!
If you would like additional examples for virtual focus group set-up, including sample screening questions and confidentiality agreement, please download this FREE guide here.
To move to the next phase of conducting your own jury research, check out Part 2: Conducting Your Own Jury Research. In this blog I will detail out creating a presentation and questions, moderating, and debriefing your virtual focus group.
Do you need a virtual focus group now? Or maybe you don’t have time or staff to set up your own virtual jury research system? I offer virtual focus groups to lawyers on several different levels depending on their case problems: 1-hour, 2-hour or 3-hour virtual focus groups. Schedule a free call today to see if my services would be a good fit.
