What Happens When A Juror Agrees [Or Disagrees] With Your Expert Witness?, by Douglas Keene, The Jury Room Blog

http://tinyurl.com/nl3tpto

Mock jurors love to hate dueling experts who give them conflicting information regarding causation, liability, reasonableness, damages, etc. They also don’t appreciate expert witnesses who use jargon or speak so simply that jurors feel ‘talked down to’—but you already know that. What jurors want is to learn what is reliable and useful to resolve the dispute. And attorneys watching mock jurors deliberate often indignantly retort, ‘That is not what the witness said!’—as though the juror simply needed to have the testimony repeated. The research we’re about to describe explains why jurors hear what they hear instead of hearing what the expert actually said. . . .