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Plaintiff attorneys are skilled at tapping into jurors’ emotions in the courtroom to make their arguments resonate, in pursuit of successful decisions that can often lead to large jury verdicts. Some practices they may deploy include: Forum shopping: Filing lawsuits in specific jurisdictions where cases tend to result in more favorable verdicts. Jury anchoring: Setting a specific reference point or “anchor” on the value of the damages (even when numbers are arbitrary or have no correlation to the actual value) at the beginning of a proceeding to artificially influence the jury’s estimation of value. In other words, the more plaintiff attorneys ask for, the more they get. Reptile strategy: Efforts to appeal to jurors’ emotions that could trigger feelings of danger to influence their decision-making. Jurors may make decisions based on the feeling they are keeping themselves and their communities safe by holding a defendant accountable. This tactic can often be reinforced by shifting societal attitudes toward corporate defendants.
Does anyone really want a world where we do not make any decisions that have some emotional component? Some principles need to evoke emotion. If a decision maker doesn’t get emotional about a corporation putting money over the value of a human life, they are not fit to decide the case. The fact is, we all use emotion when making decisions whether we realize it or not.
thank you this is very informative . so sad for the defendants that fell at the mercy of an injustice and unethical preceding .. my heart goes out to them and their families
So the companies that got hit didn’t have lawyers ? Sounds like the insurers made bad bets — I have yet to meet an insurance person who even knows what “ reptile “ is . Poor snakes !
Georgia Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Attorney at The Champion Firm
1yInteresting that the article focuses on the plaintiffs’ lawyers and not on the insurers. For every nuclear verdict there’s been an insurer’s refusal to settle for reasonable value. Insurers should do a better job of evaluating cases.