In 2015, we refined our data aggregation methods to provide our clients with comparative data for venues where we’ve conducted surveys or pretrial research exercises. In the charts below, we summarize data we’ve collected in five California counties. For more information about our methodology and sample sizes, email us at info@br-tcr.com.

Personality Scales and Consulting

Personality scales provide an important measurement tool in our consulting tool kit. For example, “Leadership,” “Belief in a Just World,” “Right-Wing Authoritarian,” “Need for Cognition,” “Dogmatism,” and “Locus of Control” scales are just a few of the measurements we often use in our pretrial research.

“All laws should be strictly enforced, no matter what the result.”

This statement is one we’ve used over the years and a subset of both authoritarian and dogmatic personality scales. Agreement reveals a rigidity in thinking processes that is often a factor in how jurors assess cases – especially ones where the jury instructions provide a clear advantage to one party in a case. Perhaps due to the fact that San Diego has the country’s largest population of military personnel — a group that favors rule clarity — it had the highest percentage of individuals who agreed with this statement.

Lawsuit Attitudes: Do You Believe That Most Parties Who Sue Others In Court Have Legitimate Grievances?

Many people are skeptical about the merits of a lawsuit even before hearing any evidence about the case. Jurors’ response to this question often reveals whether they are more inclined to support plaintiffs or defendants in civil cases. Our aggregated data shows that Tehama County residents were more skeptical about the legitimacy of lawsuits than residents of any other counties in our five-county sample.

Juries Function Is To Send Messages To Corporations

Despite their close proximity, San Francisco and Alameda residents hold different views about the function of juries. We found that 71% of Alameda residents agree that juries function to send messages to correct the behaviors of large institutions, while only 57% of San Francisco residents shared this same sentiment. In addition, our data demonstrates that San Francisco residents’ views have become more favorable toward corporations in recent years.

We posted these charts as examples of the kind of analysis that we can conduct for you and your clients, as well as to share the scope of the venues in California where we have gathered data. We encourage you to contact us if you need  a deeper understanding of the venue for your cases. Our aggregated data set allows us to give you more than just demographics. Since we’ve tried cases throughout California and in major cities throughout the United States, we can provide you and your team with data about attitudes that may influence how jurors will view your case.