You’ve been charged with a serious felony (or several) and the situation feels dire. Your entire future — and your family’s future — could be in danger.
At times like these, you want to do everything you can to tilt the odds of a successful outcome in your favor. That may mean hiring a jury consultant as part of your legal team.
Are jury consultants worth the money?
Frankly, only you and your legal team can decide if hiring a jury consultant is wise — or worth the cost. When thinking through your options, here’s what you should consider:
- They can help you develop a defense theme: Jurors are human, and like all human beings, they respond better when information is centered around a theme. The theme becomes the mantra that informs everything from the voir dire strategy to the closing statements in your trial and it helps create a narrative with which jurors can identify.
- They can help select your jury: Some attorneys believe that cases are won or lost during voir dire, or jury selection. Jury consultants study human behavior and help defense attorneys decide when they should use their previous “strikes” against a potential juror and when to let things ride.
- They help prep witnesses for trial: You want your key witnesses to be ready for court and cross-examination. You also need to be prepped for trial if you intend to take the stand. A jury consultant can help you and your most important witnesses understand how to talk, act and convey your truth effectively in court.
This is just a brief overview of the role a jury consultant can play in your case. They also do things like research juror’s backgrounds, conduct mock trials to see how well a defense strategy actually plays with them and create multimedia displays that can help jurors process complex information. Learning more about your defense options is the best way to be proactive about your own defense — especially when the stakes ae high.