ComCon KATHY KELLERMANN COMMUNICATION CONSULTING

ComCon announces the update of a free repository of video tests and demonstratives of ways witnesses err for attorneys to use to show that witnesses have limits to what they can observe, judge, attend to, remember and perceive.

The more complex a defense attorney's questions to a child witness, the more likely the jury convicts the defendant.

When racial differences are made a salient issue in a criminal case, white jurors exhibit less racial bias toward black defendants.

The newest Issue of ComCon's free Online Jury Research Update reports that jurors are 3.6 times more likely to find that sexual harassment occurs when it is communicated by email than when communicated in person.

A lump sum request for pain and suffering yields as much in jurors’ damages awards as a request for $10/hour, and more than is awarded in response to requests for $240/day or $7,200/month.

A plaintiff attorney’s $25M request for injuries valued at $250,000 receives from jurors 2/3rds the damages of a $15M request, but still 2.5 times more than a $1.5M request.

Witnesses can misjudge length, size and color of objects. Three new videos provide interactive tests and demonstrations for attorneys to use with witnesses and jurors.

Depending on the criminal charge, from 40% to 75% of jurors expect to hear scientific evidence in criminal cases.

Jurors are reluctant to disregard inadmissible evidence that they consider probative, and judicial instructions do not eliminate jurors' use of stricken evidence.

Witnesses misperceive physical attributes of faces when not seen in an upright orientation, and misperceive emotions expressed on faces when the faces are blurry (i.e., seen from a distance).