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What Turns Off A Jury In A Personal Injury Lawsuit?

It can be a number of things.

There are what I call “environmental” factors, that may have influenced them before they walked through the courthouse door. These include

• The publicity that insurance companies have spread about high damage awards, like the McDonald’s coffee case.

• The resentment they feel about being asked to award a large amount of money to someone whose injury is pretty similar to one they suffered – only they were not compensated.

• Being mad about having their work and life interrupted, to listen to someone else’s problems.

• Seeing the defendant, and thinking “there but for the grace of God go I”.

• Concern about their own insurance rates

• A feeling that the whole personal injury award system is just a “high stakes game” that the lawyers and a few – supposedly lucky or lying, or both – people have learned how to work.

Obviously, every juror doesn’t feel this way. But there are always at least one or two on every jury who do. A lawyer’s job is to minimize them – to either get them excluded from the jury, or to try to neutralize these feelings by appeal to justice, fairness, and loyalty to the system.

What are factors particular to any case that may turn off a jury? These would include:

• No or minimal damage to either car.

• Lying.

• Talking too much about yourself.

• A whole lot of physical therapy or chiropractor treatment.

• An appealing defendant.

• Exaggerating the defendant’s faults.

• Indications of drug use in medical records.

Some of these can be controlled, and some can’t. But a lawyer has to be aware of the potential for any part of his case that may ignite a jury against his client.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. I am always thinking about what the jury is thinking. If you have a personal injury case in Cincinnati, Ohio or if you want to know what your lawsuit is worth, talk with an experienced Cincinnati Injury Attorney about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 513-621-4775.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed.

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