When you are accused of a sex offense in Georgia, the best possible outcome is for the case to be dismissed by either the prosecutor or the judge. Unfortunately, a trial is not always avoidable. Therefore, from the very beginning, we are preparing each case as if we will be going to trial.
We use the leading jury consultants in the field who will work with us for months to prepare our cases for trial.
They will set up mock trials and focus groups for us to test our defense presentation and allow us to hear feedback so we can fine-tune our trial strategy. We will carefully craft what we believe to be a strong and effective defense strategy. However, we also want to see how receptive real people from a particular jurisdiction will be to our arguments, evidence, and even to our clients’ testimony. To gain this insight, we will often arrange to conduct these focus groups and mock trials in the jurisdiction where the trial will take place. That way, we can get a good sense as to how our potential jurors will respond to our case well before we get to trial.
When we hire a jury consultant, this is not someone who just shows up when we select the jury. We work with this legal expert for months. They assist us in learning the demographics and important factors of our potential jury pool. They scrutinize whether media coverage may have tainted our potential jurors’ minds against our client and whether a motion for a change of venue is appropriate.
A jury consultant will also assist us in preparing relevant questions for potential jurors, which will help bring any conscious and unconscious biases to light.
I thank God that my stepmother found him and he became a big part of our life and the outcome of my sons’ life. My son was accused falsely and we all went through absolute hell but we had comfort in knowing that Brody was on our side and fighting for us every day.
Long gone are the days of rolling a large television and VCR into the courtroom.
Now, most courtrooms are equipped with modern technology. That allows us to plug in our laptops and tablets and display a wide range of presentations to the jury.
In examining the evidence in a particular case, we need to determine how we can use technology to enhance the presentation of our defense. It may be necessary to create digital demonstrative aids to simplify the presentation of certain complicated pieces of evidence such as phone records, computer evidence or lengthy text communications. In other cases, it may be helpful in recreating a scene that will enable the jury to fully experience an event from our client’s perspective.
One of the reasons that we can spend so much time preparing our cases for trial is that we have such a small caseload. Limiting the number of cases we take allows us to spend hundreds of hours reviewing evidence, conducting focus groups, developing courtroom presentations, and devising trial strategies.
Most of the time, the many hours we spend preparing a case for trial will ultimately provide us with the tools and arguments we need to achieve a dismissal of the case. Our goal in every case is to avoid trial and achieve a dismissal for our client. In the event we are unsuccessful in achieving that, we will be ready to try the case with a fine-tuned defense. Please review our results to learn how our trial preparation strategies have led to so many dismissals and acquittals for clients.
