Last weekend a friend mentioned an article in Readers Digest and thought I might be interested in reading it. Well,I read it and just sat there with a blank look on my face.<br /><br />Here's a link to the article.... Link<br /><br />Here's the article. I have BOLDED the part that frosted my cake.<br /><br />Texas plaintiffs thought they had a strong case against the drug company Merck in a trial about the pharmaceutical giant's painkiller Vioxx last year. But their lawyers wanted more than just the verdict to go their way -- they were aiming for a stiff price tag in punitive damages to go with it. So, like many these days, the lawyers turned to their secret weapon: a jury consultant.<br /><br />In this case, the consultant -- a trained psychologist -- noted that one juror had mentioned a love of the Oprah show in a questionnaire. That gave her an idea: Jurors might deliver a big verdict if they thought it would land them on TV. The plaintiffs' lawyer ran with that advice when he addressed the jury. "I can't promise Oprah," he gushed, but "there are going to be a lot of people who'll want to know how you had the courage to do it."<br /><br />Would one mention of Oprah's name help do the trick? After ruling that Vioxx was responsible for a man's death, the jury rendered damages: a staggering $253 million.<br /><br />Sadly, such cynical tactics have become par for the course in the courtroom. Jurors are manipulated by pricey jury consultants while facts take a backseat.<br /><br />"It's extending the techniques of market research into the jury," says Neil Kressel, co-author of Stack and Sway, a book on jury consulting. "When Madison Avenue uses these techniques to market products, you may be cheated out of money. When a lawyer uses these techniques, you may be cheated out of justice."<br /><br />It all starts during the jury-selection process. Lawyers have the power to block potential jurors who might bring an unfair bias to the case. You don't want a suspected racist sitting on the jury of a black defendant, for instance. But nowadays, jury consultants and lawyers have become super slick about weeding out people -- exploiting the blocking power to ban just about anybody they think might rule against their side. Some states limit how many jurors lawyers can block, but in many localities they can bump up to a dozen or more jurors without ever saying why.<br /><br />A recent guide published by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America warned lawyers about jurors who may show "personal responsibility bias." These jurors, the guide said, feel that "people must be accountable for their conduct." Now there's a chilling outlook! The guide advises: "The only solution is to exclude them from the jury." That is, get rid of anyone who might actually care about seeing justice done.<br /><br />Whether it's a civil or criminal case, whether it's the defense or prosecution, a jury consultant can predetermine the outcome before the trial even begins. Howard Varinsky, a jury consultant who helped prosecutors convict Martha Stewart, told CBS News that asking a potential juror who his favorite person is can illuminate his ability to grasp complex data. For example, says Varinsky, the juror who chooses Cher -- instead of, say, Martin Luther King or Ronald Reagan -- isn't very bright. Of course, that just may be what Varinsky is looking for: "In a case where you have a lot of complex information to process, I think you would want somebody who likes Cher."<br /><br />Talk like that is frightening when you consider what's at stake. Huge jury awards of $100 million or more have become almost commonplace. It's easy to see why lawyers would pull out all the stops. At the same time, these higher stakes mean that lawyers and consultants can charge millions more. A topnotch consultant can pull in hundreds of thousands of dollars in just one major trial.<br /><br />It seems no tactic is off-limits for a canny consultant. When millionaire real estate heir Robert Durst went on trial for the murder -- and dismemberment -- of his neighbor, jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn was hired to help the defense. After quizzing the jury pool about their TV-viewing habits, Hirschhorn looked for fans of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order. Defense lawyers argued that wounds to the dead neighbor's head would support Durst's self-defense claims. But the police never found the head. Hirschhorn gambled that fans of crime shows might want more evidence -- like the missing head -- than others. When Durst was acquitted, a new term entered modern legal lexicon: "the CSI effect."<br /><br />Jury selection is far from the only service offered. Most consultant companies -- with names like The Right Jury and Verdict Success -- empanel focus groups to taste-test hypothetical arguments, followed by mock trials: "You find what story [mock jurors] are more likely to buy and you go with that," says Kressel.<br /><br />On top of everything else, jury consultants are costing all of us money. "If you find out the other side has a consultant, you want to make sure you have one too," says Kressel. So in order to get "the edge," trial costs throughout the country are skyrocketing. When a state prosecutor hires a high-profile jury consultant, those are your tax dollars at work.<br /><br />Lawyers argue that it's their duty to represent a client as effectively as possible, and jury consultants may tip the scales. But that's just the problem. With massive judgments spiraling out of control and legal costs soaring just as fast, we need to put an end to the manipulative practices that take justice out of the law.
