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Juror Attitudes Toward Insurance Companies
Trial Behavior Consulting has conducted a number of studies designed to
uncover the various attitudes and expectations jurors have about insurance
companies that can impact litigation. Some of the attitudes include:
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Only one out of ten jurors reports hearing positive publicity about insurance companies. |
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Claims should
be processed in six months or less. Any longer is unacceptable. |
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Insurance
companies put their own financial interest ahead of those of their policy holders. |
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The majority
of jurors want to see insurance companies more strongly regulated. |
Strategically designed questions can
be helpful in identifying strikes and cause challenges in an insurance-related
case. For example, the following juror comments are in response to the question,
"If an insurance company is sued by a policyholder, do you think the
insurance company has probably done something wrong?"
"Maybe
the policy was not clearly explained to the policy holder."
"A suit will arise if the insurance company did
not live up to its agreement."
"Yes, only because why would someone go through
the trouble of suing." "There would not be a lawsuit unless something
went wrong."
"Why else would they be sued?"
"If they wouldn't have done anything
wrong they wouldn't get sued."
We have extensive experience
in insurance litigation, including insurance bad faith and insurance coverage.
We have also presented our research findings at conferences for several legal
associations including the Defense Research Institute and the American Bar
Association. One of our recent cases involved a re-trial of a complex insurance
case stemming from the Northridge earthquake in southern California. The first
jury had returned a multi-million dollar verdict. Once a new trial team was
brought in, they mock tried the case with us. We also assisted in jury selection.
In the retrial, the jury returned a defense verdict. (For more details on
this case, click here.) |
