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Evaluating Commercial Litigation
In most commercial cases, the facts do not speak for themselves. Winning
requires the use of persuasive themes incorporated into a story that provides
context for jurors to understand the case facts.
Juror Perceptions of Business
A significant portion of the urban jury pool throughout the country believes
that big business cannot be trusted, is unethical, and pursues profit at
any cost. Crucial in this belief system is juror acceptance of the notion
that big businesses conspire with each other to the detriment of consumers.
Many potential jurors, however, approach commercial cases with a strong
belief in a free economy, with fears that government excessively regulates
business and that profitability is desirable. While these clusters of beliefs
are not all perfectly correlated with one another, they represent the underlying
views that jurors bring to commercial trials. To prevail, attorneys must
be armed with knowledge of attitudes towards big business held by jurors
in their venue.
Crafting a Story
Just as with antitrust cases, the facts in complex commercial cases are
usually complex and dry. It falls to the trial attorney to develop a story
that persuasively weaves the evidence together into a human tale that makes
sense of people’s motivations and actions in a way that supports the
client’s case. Testing your case before a mock jury can help you see
the holes in your story. You can also learn a great deal from hearing the
stories that jurors themselves construct out of your fact pattern and witnesses.
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