Employment

Our work on behalf of Fortune 500 corporations in the area of employment has enabled our research team to learn a great deal about jurors and how they process information. This is particularly helpful in racial and/or sexual discrimination cases, where the stakes, as well as the emotions, are elevated.

In focus group after focus group that DOAR has conducted, it is apparent that jurors today do not "buy into" statistics, which are often the subject of expert witness testimony in discrimination cases. Their skepticism stems from a belief that statistics can be manipulated to achieve a desired result. Instead, jurors want the allegations of the discrimination to "come to life" through the testimony of individuals. They want to hear first-hand experiences of the alleged discrimination.

However, this anecdotal testimony is usually not enough to satisfy the plaintiff's burden of proof in a class action, since the plaintiff must also show that a "pattern and practice" of discrimination existed at the defendant's organization. Educating jurors about this burden is a significant first-step in defending these discrimination cases. The defense must also counter all of plaintiffs' anecdotes with additional anecdotes of merited promotions.