Survey: Juror attitudes & decisions in the wake of COVID-19
We are living in unprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world in ways that few have ever seen, nor could they have imagined. The novel coronavirus has impacted almost every facet of our lives. It has led to changes in the way we perform our job functions, the way we shop, and the way we interact with individuals. More importantly, it has changed the way we think and the attitudes we hold across a variety of topics.
At Courtroom Sciences, Inc., one of our primary goals is to understand the way that jurors integrate case information with their pre-existing attitudes and beliefs to arrive at verdict decisions. Recently, we have been asked by defense counsel how COVID-19 may affect future juror decision-making. There has been a lot of speculation on how attitudes and opinions will change, but there is not a lot of data to back up these assertions. To help answer some of these client questions, we conducted a national survey of 359 jury-eligible individuals across seven metropolitan cities. Participants responded to a series of questions related to, among other things, their perceptions of various industries, changes in their attitudes after COVID-19, and their attitudes toward serving as a juror in an upcoming case.