Lawyers think in terms of evidence.
Legal standards, cases, and laws.
Jurors think in terms of experience and expectations.
In some cases, the two line up — like a car crash, where everyone in the courtroom basically agrees on what drivers should do. But in other cases, lawyers are operating in one world and jurors are in another — like a products case, or medical malpractice.
One of the ways to even the playing field is to learn what jurors expect based on their life experiences. And “experience” is not limited only personal experience — jurors draw on what they’ve seen others go through, what they’ve read, what they’ve watched, and what they’ve absorbed from culture. Expectations are built from all of it.
This is different from point of view. Point of view tells you whose shoes the juror is standing in. Expectations tell you what the juror, in those shoes, demands of everyone in the story. Point of view is perspective. Expectations are behavioral — the norms jurors apply to how each party should have acted.
Here’s how to use it:
1. What do jurors expect of someone in my client’s role?
Start with the role your client is playing in the story — driver, patient, employee, homeowner, parent. Each role carries expectations, and jurors can expect a lot. Knowing them in advance lets you prepare your client to meet them or explain why they didn’t.
2. What do jurors expect of someone in the defendant’s role?
Now the defendant. Institutional defendants almost always face higher juror expectations than the legal standard. Knowing where juror expectation sits above the legal floor tells you where the defendant is most vulnerable.
3. Where does the gap between law and expectation cost me — or help me?
This is where case strategy lives. If your client fell short of juror expectations, that’s a gap you defuse. If the defendant fell short, that’s a gap you build your case around. The gap is rarely in the file. It’s in the focus group.
Example: HOA Disability Accommodation Case
A homeowner with a wheelchair asked the HOA for a dedicated accessible parking spot in the parking garage. The existing guest handicap spot had a wall on one side — the same side she needed to access for her wheelchair. The HOA’s response: use a guest spot if you want. We don’t have to change anything, the parking lot was built do code and the ADA doesn’t apply.
Legally, the HOA was right about the ADA. But here’s what happened in the focus group. Jurors saw the wall. They saw a spot that couldn’t actually be used for the purpose it was painted for. Their reaction was immediate: the HOA should fix this.
Notice what jurors weren’t doing. They weren’t asking whether the HOA had a legal duty or what do the HOA rules say. They were applying their expectation of how a responsible HOA should behave. And that expectation sat far above the legal minimum.
The bottom line:
Legal duty is what the law requires. Expectations are what jurors require.
When the two don’t line up, the case gets decided on expectations — every time.
Focus groups are how you see the gap before the jury does.
If you want to know what jurors expect in your case, that’s exactly what I do in virtual focus groups. I test your facts, your themes, your evidence, and your case theory — and we give you the expectations layer your legal training doesn’t show you. Book a free consultation here.
