About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

16 Jury Expert 1 (2004)

handle is hein.journals/jurexp16 and id is 1 raw text is: The Jury Expert T Excellence in Jury Selection, Communication and Persuasion EI Volume 16, Number 1 How Medical Negligence Experts are Perceived by Jurors by Howard and Laura Schlesinger Experts who testify in medical negligence cases have a critical role to perform. These are wit- nesses who address the medical standard of care and impart its meaning to jurors. All evidence pertaining to the standard is what is legally salient and should be of the highest priority when jurors decide issues of negligence and causation. But is expert opinion what the majority of jurors determine to be the key factor in reaching their verdict? Are there other more persuasive factors? What else drives a jury's verdict? A. Geography Experts who testify for plaintiffs often are not from the same geographical area as the plaintiff and/or defendant. This is because close profes- sional, social and economic ties bind the medical CONTENTS Features How Medical Medical Negligence Experts are Perceived by Jurors ........ I What You Don't Know Can Hurt You With Alternate Jurors ......................... 4 Defense Insights on Understanding Jurors in Employment Cases ............ 10 Departments * Trial Weapons: -Winning (or Losing) at the Starter's Gate ..8 -Cross Examination Lessons ................. 9 January, 2004 community together. Certain local experts sim- ply will not rock the boat. Does this play a role in a jury's verdict? Do jurors care where an expert is from? For certain jurors, the answer is yes. No matter how many times the trial judge cautions jurors to follow the court's instructions and only base their decision on the evidence, certain people cling to the notion that out- siders, not from their community, do not know I[qertain people cling to the notion that 'outsiders,' not from their community, do not know how the doctors and hospitals in their locale practice.... how the doctors and hospitals in their locale practice medicine. There is a psychological reason why these people maintain such a strong belief. Psychologists refer to it as Cognitive Dissonance, which is a state of anxiety aroused when a person must confront hard-to-swallow information. As jurors, this manifests as an immediate rejection of informa- tion that is not consistent with how they believe their world works. Below is an example of how decision-making is affected. A plaintiff's expert opines that a patient was mis- diagnosed by several doctors who treated the patient at a local hospital. The jury is listening to this expert-from half-way across the country ---criticize the care provided by a local doctors. The testimony essentially tells local residents that their doctors blew it. Logically, one might think that residents would want to know if the medical care in their community is negligently © 2004 Litigation One Publishing

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most