Source of article 2's Company - Magnus Insights.

My previous post outlined the reasons why online “mock jury” research is not in reality “mock jury” research. In this, related, post, I will discuss additional constraints and limitations of online “mock jury” research. I will also add that I have concerns about confidentiality with online research. Confidentiality is more than just having a confidentiality agreement signed. With online research, controlling the ability of the participants to capture information through such things as screen shots, or the use of, for example, a cell phone camera, is minimal. Further, putting the information “out there” on the internet creates hacking risks, or the risk that unauthorized persons are in the room with the participant.

I mentioned earlier the client who had reasons for doing online research that didn’t really make sense. Well, that client said her team was spread around the country and that they wanted online research so that all of them could observe. My takeaway from that is it was more important for this prospective client to conduct the research in a way convenient to her team, without regard to whether that was the most effective way to evaluate the case. We, at Magnus, are all about making things convenient for the mock jurors. When presented with this type of “our team is spread around,” it seems to us that a better answer is to either let the team watch the videos we record at a later date or set up a webcast for the observers, but to still use a traditional group of people to ensure the integrity of the research. We can, and do, often use pre-recorded video arguments, but we present these to actual groups of jury eligible residents of the trial venue (unless on the rare occasion we need to utilize an alternate venue for one of a few reasons which are beyond the scope of this post). To do otherwise introduces many uncontrolled variables that, ultimately, may undermine the research, all in hopes of saving a few dollars. I suppose I should finish by saying I’ll never say never. Maybe there are circumstances where very carefully constructed online research would be useful. But, in doing so properly, it is doubtful that this is a “cheaper option” than live mock jury research. Consumers of online jury research services should carefully evaluate whether there are so many short cuts being taken that the process undermines the question of evaluating the case.