Source of article 2's Company - Magnus Insights.

One uses a lever to gain leverage in order to be able to move something easier than moving it without the lever. I don’t know a great deal about physics, but I get this. And, it is important to look for leverage in life, in business, and in our world, the world of litigation. There are multiple forms of leverage that come into play at various points in litigation. But, the one that prompts me to write this post is mock jury research results. I recently had lunch with a prospective client who was intrigued at how a colleague of his, who is a client of ours, had used the mock jury results as leverage in achieving a great settlement for his client, the plaintiff. In this instance, our client showed a portion of the videos from the mock jury research to the attorneys and adjusters on the “other side” to allow them to see the mock jurors’ generous verdicts. (I’ve written about this practice previously in other posts, but I wanted to put this idea in the context of leverage.) Our client revealed the videos at a strategic time to get the attention of his opponents. Because the mock jury results turned out favorably for our client, he was able to do this. Many of our clients have used this “reveal” technique successfully, both as plaintiffs or defendants. But, what if the research results don’t favor the client’s case? Well, then the leverage is used with the attorney’s client. When a plaintiff needs a “reality check,” research results can provide this. We’ve had plenty of plaintiffs with unrealistic expectations, who thought their case was worth much more than reality would support. Our plaintiff’s attorney clients in these situations used the research results as leverage to bring these clients to reality as a way to resolve the case. On the flip side, the defense, we’ve had adjusters, or their supervisors, who put an unrealistically low value on a case. When the outcome of the research demonstrated a potential for a high verdict at trial, a lever was created and applied to free up additional settlement funds. In the alternative, if the case indicated the case was defensible or that the verdict was low, the defense attorney had a lever to use when negotiating with the plaintiff’s attorney to try to move the case to resolution. So, levers may be of different types, but the leverage of research results does make the path to resolution easier for those involved.