Crafting the Perfect Trial Environment: Do You Need Litigation Consultants?

Attorneys and law firms that have several successes under their belts will often consider their trial prep skills to be acceptable on their own. However, any attorney who has run into a difficult trial knows that it’s tough to guarantee an ideal trial environment, especially when dealing with technically complex or publicly divisive topics; there are simply too many variables.

This is why many attorneys decide to hire litigation consultants: specialists who can help attorneys craft courtroom situations favorable to their goals or find and place jurors that might be more favorable to their side. However, do you really need litigation consultants? Let’s break down why you might consider hiring them.

What Litigation Consultants Bring to the Table

Litigation consultants are specialists that law firms can hire to help them develop trial strategies and evaluate cases. These consultants improve the chances to win an argument by raising the attorneys performance and time management. It sounds simple, but these services are quite valuable overall. Litigation consultants can assist attorneys and law firms by:

• Providing research studies during mock trial or focus group events
• Consulting with attorneys to help communicate case details in certain favorable ways
• Measuring jurors’ likely emotional responses to clients
• Measuring jurors’ likely response to technical details
• Measuring community attitudes and knowledge of a case
• Helping attorneys select a favorable or impartial jury
• Using psychology training to make sure all of the above measurements and trials are methodologically sound and rely on statistics

Litigation consultants can help attorneys weigh the odds in their favor and help them avoid being stuck in a courtroom with a hostile jury that doesn’t understand key aspects of their case.

Do You Really Need Them?

All in all, litigation consultants can provide real value to any upcoming court case. Litigation consulting firms with lots of experience can offer worthwhile and fact-based insights to help attorneys win difficult and dramatic cases that would otherwise be tough to win on their own.

Of course, attorneys can do this themselves, but it takes a lot of time and extra research; two things that attorneys and law firms may not be able to spare, particularly with high workload cases. Litigation consultants can lessen the load of work and focus on jury composition and other factors while attorneys prioritize the other main aspects of their cases. This ultimately results in more predictable outcomes, as attorneys are not spread too thin.

What to Look for In Litigation Consultants

Not all litigation consultants are worthwhile. Experienced litigation consulting firms are ideal examples for attorneys to investigate. They can provide consulting work based on years of experience and high education, ensuring favorable results and actionable advice that attorneys can use to help adjust courtroom elements as needed.

Any worthwhile litigation consultant group will have:

• experienced members
• a sterling reputation
• lots of education
• a proven track record

Ultimately, attorneys and law firms may have different opinions on the overall value of litigation consultants, but there’s no denying that they can be of great help to any difficult or controversial case.