Start Your Case on the Right Path: Using a Focus Group Before Discovery [Ep 139]
In this episode, Elizabeth Larrick discusses the importance of using Zoom focus groups before discovery in trial preparation. She outlines the benefits of these focus groups, including setting the right direction for a case, avoiding wasted time on irrelevant claims, and utilizing feedback effectively. Through a case study involving a school district, she illustrates how focus groups can help identify critical information and prevent surprises during the discovery process.
Takeaways
- Using Zoom focus groups can set the right direction for a case.
- Focus groups help avoid wasting time on irrelevant claims.
- Even minimal information can yield valuable feedback from focus groups.
- Feedback from focus groups can be reused throughout the case.
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:
Have questions about Zoom Focus groups? Set up a Free call with Elizabeth here.
Depositions Are Trial by Sach Oliver
Episode Transcript:
Elizabeth Larrick (00:02.604)
Want to get ahead in case planning and expenses? Tired of chasing rabbits, claims that jurors just don’t even care about? Let’s jumpstart your case with a Zoom focus group right out of the gate. Hello and welcome back.
podcast. I’m your host Elizabeth Larrick and this is a new episode about starting your case on the right path with a Zoom focus group before discovery. So you know we talk about Zoom focus groups here and I want to encourage you to do them before you are neck deep in trial prep because when that happens you don’t have the ability to change
or really move very much with the case that you have in front of you. You can maybe do a little wiggle, maybe do a little shimmy, but what I really want you to be able to do is conduct jury research, zoom focus groups, and be able to use that feedback to maneuver, right? Take that extra deposition if you need it. Go after that written discovery and know which way the jury wants to hear the case.
Don’t forget, if you’re ever curious about Zoom focus groups or trial strategy, that there’s a link in the show notes to connect with Time with Me. We can go find that witness, take that deposition, find that expert, but really we are able to implement our case themes in our depositions, which if you haven’t noticed is kind of a thing now. Two really big books out there right now on those, and I’ll have them linked in the show notes for you. That deposition is now kind of your trial.
Elizabeth Larrick (02:22.784)
So I really want us to be looking at as trial lawyers using focus groups before discovery. Now you may be thinking, Elizabeth, I don’t have enough information. It’s not going to be a fruitful focus group. Not true. People watch 60 second TikTok videos all the time and make plenty of life decisions based on those 60 seconds. So if you have 10 minutes of facts, that is more than enough for these people to give you feedback on what you have, what more they want to know.
And if you have a theory or a theme, you could throw it out there and they’ll tell you what they think about it. Now, you may have a case where you truly don’t have enough information and you’ll know that because if you don’t even have 10 minutes of the facts, then you should probably wait until you get more information. However, most lawyers are good investigators. They’re going to go and run down and get the information, get all the reports.
talk to some folks and at least get a good rounded picture before they even file a lawsuit. That’s because most petitions, complaints if you will, will require some factual basis. Not all states require that, however most will. So knowing you’re gonna have that information, you can then go first and foremost in the right direction, right out of the gate. So I know many of us may have some form templates that we use for discovery, but that can just lead us in a very general direction. And the first
Benefit of using a focus group before you get discovery is to send you in the direction that the jury wants you to go. There is no point in trying to force claims that the jury doesn’t even care about. And trust me, they will tell you what they care about and what they don’t care about, even if all you have is 10 minutes of facts and the rest you use to talk to them. So using a focus group before even discovery puts you in the right direction.
And leads me to the second good point of using a focus group before discovery, is avoid wasting time. We don’t want to chase the wrong avenues, the wrong claims, or even the wrong documents. There are plenty of times where we may have a case where we really, really, really, really want the documents and you spend months. I know people who spend years doing motion to compel over and over again to try and get documents, but do you need them? Right?
Elizabeth Larrick (04:40.753)
Go ask a focus group. They will let you know. Okay. But we don’t want you to waste time and energy because longer it takes sometimes the less enthusiasm that we have. So we want to avoid you wasting time after claims that just jurors don’t even care about. The next benefit of doing a zoom focus group before discovery is you can actually start with a frame in mind. Yes, we know we want to start with the defendant’s conduct, but many times there are lots of different
pieces of that conduct. And it’s important to know which one is the one that the jury wants to know about or frame first. So there could be lots of different things. We want to make sure that we go after the right things. And also it’s significantly helpful. We’re going to go take questions, do depositions. So the other bonus that we have, and we do zoom focus groups before discovery is that we can use this feedback in the case over and over again.
Now these zoom focus groups that we’re doing before discovery, again, they’re neutral setups. Again, like I said, 10 minutes of facts and then just talking to them about the rest. Naturally, you may have some photographs or some videos, focus group folks love videos, that will also help you again, go in the right direction or be able to at least know if you need to go create something, what direction it’ll need to be. But you can use that feedback over and over again in the case and of course tag it as a case expense. So,
Let’s talk about an example. Here recently I had a virtual focus group, again just one hour, that was a case against a school district. And what we really wanted to find out was is the school really on the hook? Because in situations where there may be a liability law that allows you to sue the school, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the jurors are going to buy in on it. So before spending an extreme amount of time and expenses pursuing the matter,
lawyer wanted to know, is there anything even here? So again, remember it’s before discovery. So what do we even have? Well, first of course, we have our school policies, right? Our school documents. So we want to make sure, all right, what do the jurors think about? What are their focus group participants think about these policies? Are they good policies? Are they hard policies? Is it too much for the school? Are teachers a burden? Are they good, right? And then of course we had our facts. And so,
Elizabeth Larrick (07:07.259)
What ended up coming out of our focus group was of course we learned that there were some missing critical pieces that the potential jurors wanted to see. And specifically there were some events during a timeframe that we just didn’t have any information. We truly didn’t know what was happening. And so it became like, okay, when you’re going in discovery, you’ve got to find out what happened during that particular week in school. And what we also…
kind of decided from a strategy standpoint is you had to close the door to any surprises. Now, good trial lawyers, experienced trial lawyers have probably had this happen where you hunt down this case, you do a great job getting all the documents, getting all the information, work on those depositions, you’re getting ready for trial and ring ring, you get a call. we seem to have found another witness and this is what they’re going to say, which is something, a story you’ve never heard and doesn’t fit anything else. And so,
You know, when we look at cases very early on, we just want to make sure how do we close the door to any surprises? Again, specifically testimony that may come in from witnesses in a case like this. There are hundreds of witnesses. Also, we decided or rather the focus group told us about the documents that they wanted to see. Now, knowing that there may not even be these documents, it also became one of those things. Let’s prevent a surprise document coming later on knowing, OK,
What are the goals then for the discovery of this case? One, make sure you get all the possible documents and then close the door. Is this everything? Sign of verification. This is everything. Nothing else is going to come out. And then also of course, finding the missing facts and pieces and elements of that timeframe that they really wanted to know about. Knowing we should close the door, make sure there’s nobody else is going to have information about these events that may surprise and pop up later.
The lawyer now has a focus group that she can go back to and reread the information, reread those first impressions, go back through that transcript, watch the video again as she is proceeding through her discovery, knowing she’s not going to waste her time chasing some claims. She’s going to start with a good frame in mind, meaning let’s look at our policies and then what’s missing from that standpoint of our school. And then there were a few things that we learned too, that were just good things that we heard about school.
Elizabeth Larrick (09:29.94)
The school steps into the place of the parent, right? Safety is number one while these kids are there. And it was very important to be able to rule out some other things that may be happening with the student during the timeframe. All right. So we have three very clear benefits of using Zoom focus groups before discovery. Number one, let’s set us off on the right direction instead of the wrong direction. Number two, avoid wasting time going after claims, documents, depositions that just don’t matter the jury.
and also finally starting with a frame in mind. And so we can go ahead and implement that while we’re going through depositions. The bonus being that we can learn early on and reuse that focus group feedback as we continue through the case. And it becomes kind of a comparison, if you will. If you have questions about how to use a Zoom focus group before discovery,
Don’t hesitate to book a call with me. can find the link in the show notes. And yes, of course, the call is free. Okay. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope that you found it helpful and until next time. Thank you.