How to Create Your Own Virtual System for Jury Research [Ep 126]
Join Elizabeth Larrick as she explores the transformative power of virtual focus groups for trial lawyers. In this episode, Elizabeth discusses her course, “DIY Virtual Focus Groups for Beginners,” designed to equip trial lawyers with the skills to run their own focus groups. Elizabeth shares her experience of how these methods have enhanced her practice by providing crucial jury insights and improving case decisions. The course offers practical tools, including recorded Zoom sessions, a detailed workbook, and a supportive community, addressing common challenges like recruitment, presentation, and moderation.
Elizabeth emphasizes the importance of integrating feedback into legal case preparations, aiming for clarity and simplicity in jury communication. Discover how running your own focus groups can refine your presentation strategies, connect more effectively with juries and clients, and enhance your overall courtroom success.
In this episode, you will hear:
- Introduction to DIY Virtual Focus Groups for trial lawyers
- Strategies for recruitment, presentation, and moderation in focus groups
- Importance of integrating feedback for effective jury communication
- Benefits of running personal focus groups for case preparation
Follow and Review:
We’d love for you to follow us if you haven’t yet. Click that purple ‘+’ in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We’d love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast.
Supporting Resources:
To learn more about the on-demand course Do-It-Yourself Virtual Focus Groups go to https://elizabethlarrick.com/on-demand-course-focus-groups/
To hear other episodes about running your own virtual focus groups check out:
DIY Focus Groups with Clint Shumacher [Ep 83]
Setting Up Your Focus Group System [Ep 81]
Focus Group Recruiting [Ep 80]
DIY Virtual Jury Research Part 1 [Ep 19]
DIY Virtual Jury Research Part 2 [Ep 20]
Episode Credits
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know I sent you.
Episode Transcript
Hello, and welcome back to the podcast. I’m your host, Elizabeth Larrick, and I’m glad you’re here today. This episode is going to be a bit different from my normal style. I am going to be sharing information about my on demand course, DIY virtual focus groups for beginners. I’ve talked quite a bit about virtual focus groups on this podcast.
That’s not normal. Even if you’re just now joining me, you may have probably heard some other episodes That were in the feed or that you saw before episode 19, episode 20, episode 80, and a great interview with Clint Schumacher on DIY Focus Groups. All those links will actually be in the show notes if you want to go back and take a look at those.
What I found though is that it was a little bit of a piecemeal information and I get a lot of questions in my email inbox about running virtual focus groups and several pitfalls that people may run into. And so I decided that I could create a course to help folks that are out there either getting started, they’re interested in it, or maybe they’re running them at their own office right now and they’re just getting stuck.
But before I did that, I went out and I looked at what resources right now are available for lawyers, specifically, that gives them a full picture on creating virtual focus groups, not just the recruiting piece, but also the presentation piece and the moderating, which can be really challenging for us because sometimes it turns into cross exam.
And knowing that the importance of running your own virtual focus groups, having that information To make decisions in your case is really key. That’s how I was able to run my law firm. I learned how to do them and put that into practice very quickly to help me make decisions because I didn’t have a lot of resources.
So I wanted to make sure that I could maximize my cases that I had with the basically the resources I had to put into them. And I just really didn’t want to pick the wrong case to go to trial on and possibly lose or make the wrong decision about investing in a case that really wasn’t going to get very far with the jury.
And I believe every lawyer should have access to jury research, no matter where you are, because it really helps overall with running your law firm, making good decisions and having a lot of confidence and assurance in what you’re doing when sometimes it feels like you’re just operating in a vacuum.
There are not very many other resources that we can Really used to get feedback about what other people jurors actually people were making decisions about the cases think right. We can talk to their lawyers. That’s nice. That experience is good. But if you ever been a trial, you know, it’s never going to go exactly as somebody else’s trial has gone.
And so you just want to make sure that you’re testing that. So. I looked at my process and again, I looked back at what people were asking me. I ran several webinars back as well in March and February to help kind of give some information to see where things were needing, where people were lacking. And I even asked again, did other polls to make, ask lawyers.
And what I found was, Or what I’ve created was a live three sessions, zoom sessions where everybody could come in and ask questions and go through the material together. There’s so much material that I created a workbook to go along with everything. And of course you record everything. Which is now what this episode is about the on demand version of that course.
It’s still all the great information about the very actionable steps that you can take along with options. I know that my way is not the highway. There are lots of ways that folks run focus groups. And so I tried to provide those options as well for you along with, you know, really an overview with timelines that you can look at and thinking through the ability.
to delegate to staff members. And so I really encourage lawyers and their staff to join our meetings that we had back in May. Again, that’s exactly what this episode is about. That on demand course that is now available until December 1st. and access will be available all the way through the end of 2024.
And what I’ve also done is because it’s so vital for us to be able to ask questions and get information is I’ve also scheduled an Ask Me Anything on December 2nd so that we can get together and you can pick my brain and I can ask you questions as well about how things are going. And also the platform that is hosting the course allows for a lot of community interaction, a lot of posting.
And that I feel like is always really helpful when you’re doing something new and you have questions and lawyers are really good about questions. You immediately can go there, post a question and get an answer. Okay. So that’s really, I think a helpful part of it as well. And what can you really gain from taking this course?
Well, number one, DIY do it yourself, virtual focus groups, right? Get in yourself, literally those step by step actions to get over that starting place where you’re thinking, how do I get started? And naturally that’s going to save costs and that’s going to make it really convenient for you and. Your office to get answers on questions.
But really, what is gained is confidence and certainty in the evidence that you have and assurance that you have been able to flip those negative facts into either positive positive or even just neutralize them. Really be able to issue spot things that you can’t see as a lawyer, right? We’ve always got some blind spots, especially when we are really invested in a case.
It’s hard to see the other point of view and that’s where focus groups are so awesome at seeing things that we can’t. themes, being able to really look at those facts and targeting concerned areas with these one hour, two hour, even three hour virtual focus groups and getting the clarity that you want, right, to make decisions about cases.
And here recently, right, I had a lawyer who perfectly summarized it. He said, I’m so relieved because. You give this presentation and hearing their feedback that we don’t have to go into a trial and really educate people about something so boring as our case. And it’s like, yes, it is so much simpler than what we make it to be, right?
We tend to complicate things because we have so much information and facts. And really that’s where a focus group, even a short focus group can help you see the simplicity of the case without any complication. And of folks that have taken this course, right? I mean, you know, one of the reviews that I’ve gotten is that, you know, it’s the course has information about gathering people and have forms for different types of focus groups that are available and even interpreting the information, which is kind of critical, right?
We want to make sure that we interpret things correctly. So. All of that is packaged right into three on demand videos and three workbooks that go with that. And the workbooks just kind of accentuate, meaning they’re going to give you more information than what is in the video, but you can go in there and play the videos that you need.
Again, having you and staff be able to have access to those so everybody’s on the same page. And then again, that December 2nd Ask Me Anything, so everybody can come in and get their questions answered. It was definitely one of the highlights of the live version that we had in May, because there is just so much information in there, and sometimes, you know, it’s hard to necessarily connect to it.
everything. Plus, there’s always generally a nuanced question that folks have about maybe their particular practice area or how do you focus group this topic or this problem, right? So that’s always a great question to ask as well. So if you’re interested in learning more about the on demand course, head over to ElizabethLarrick.
com slash on demand course Focus groups, long link. I understand it’ll be in the show notes. So if you’re driving or walking, just know, check those show notes later to find that link. And plus, if you are just not sure if making, doing your own virtual system for jury research is what you’d like to do, then go back to those episodes I mentioned before, 19, 20, 80.
Again, the links will be in the show notes to see, you know, is this something that I want to do? And, um, You know, I encourage folks that it is much simpler than you think to get it started. And it’s, of course, it feels simple to me because I’ve been doing it for years, but I want every lawyer who is practicing in this space, plan of personal injury, employment law, business litigation, to have a tool to help them make decisions to, and also educate their client.
You know, that’s one of those things that sometimes we have clients that are really fixated on Certain facts and certain pieces of their damages, which maybe just don’t hit the jury the same way, right? And it’s hard for them to understand that until they actually see it. And that’s just one of the benefits that you have is.
You can run one of these focus groups right when you need it with the perfect amount of time that you need with an efficient cost and get that answer and then be able to move forward in the case. So many times what I see people do is really hesitate. when it comes to getting information to move a case forward.
And the hesitation could be there’s other cases going on or well that mediation got moved so I’ll just, I’ll just wait to do that later. That’s not a pressing thing that I need information on. I’ll just move it down. Right? You reprioritizing things based on trial dates and expert depositions, and mediations.
Here’s where that becomes a huge problem. That’s really underestimating the amount of amazing information and perspective you will get from a virtual focus group. And you will want to marinate on that information because initial blush may be You want to, you know, run to the bathroom, Ralph, because it’s all terrible information.
But once you really need to digest it to be able to see, Oh, okay, wait a second. Let me get a little bit deeper here on what they’re saying and really try to integrate this into the case earlier than waiting. LLC. Many a times what happens is at first blush, it sounds like they really they’re putting your case in the garbage pan, right?
Like they don’t like it. It sounds like they’re creating more problems for you than not. But most of the time, if you sit with it, go back over it. And this is where that interpretation comes from. You realize I can answer all of these questions, but wow, I need to make that really clear. up front and how do I do that now with, with what I have left, right?
Like maybe it’s the mediation presentation. Maybe it’s these expert depositions that I need to get those questions in up front and very clear so that it’s the jury has those answers. They’re not sitting there wondering about these things. And again, the longer we can marinate on this feedback, the more we can integrate it into our cases and make them better.
Even if at the end of the day, it’s going to be a settlement. That’s okay. Because most of the decision makers on our cases fit more into the Drupal than they do, than they do on our side of things, right? They’ve got very few of things, but having a little bit of clarity and simplicity fits everybody because our brains love that that is persuasive.
And that’s a huge piece of what you can get from running your own purchase groups. Okay. Well, that’s it. I hope that this episode, although different than the normal ones, was helpful and maybe if you’re not ready yet, that’s okay. This is still a good place to maybe peruse the page. Look at the information and see like, okay, listen to the other episodes.
Maybe this is, maybe this isn’t, but just know that that is available for you until December 1st. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.