Survey

Mitigating Doubt with Data

As a litigator, you know how important it is to ask the right questions. Whether selecting a jury or cross-examining a witness at deposition, every question you ask is a strategic move designed to strengthen your case.

That’s not just good lawyering. It’s good science.

At ThemeVision, we consider both.

Our trial consultants are formally trained experts in human behavior and research design. We perform scientifically valid research that asks and answers your most pertinent questions, giving you relevant, useful data, supported by rich contextual insights.

All clearly presented to guide you in your decision-making.

If you value expertise over assumption and data over doubt, ask us about these ThemeVision research services.

Community Attitude Surveys

What if they’ve already made up their minds about it? That feels like something you would need to know, right? We conduct scientifically valid, large sample opinion and attitude surveys to help you understand community attitudes on hot button issues that may come into play in your case.

Before you jump into the deep end, let us check the temperature and measure the depth of people’s feelings, so you know what you’re up against.

Surveys can be conducted online or over the phone. Either way, you start out ahead when you know early in the litigation what the community already believes about the issues.

The easiest thing to convince someone of is the thing they already believe to be true.

Venue Analysis

Will it play in Peoria? One of the first rules of effective communication is to “know the room.” For trial lawyers, this is especially important. Local counsel can give opinions. But we give facts.

Our research includes up-to-date demographic, economic, and historical information on your specific venue. But we don’t stop there. We also explore community attitudes and media influences.

While this written report was initially intended as a resource for trial teams during trial prep, we’ve noticed that many of our clients are keeping it close by throughout litigation. We think that’s a smart move, so let us know if you need a few extra copies.

Case Valuation Surveys

What’s this case worth in front of a jury? You can guess what a jury will think a case is worth-or you can look at the data.

We use archival methods to gather historical data on verdicts awarded in comparable cases. And because no two cases are ever the same, we can also survey the opinions of potential jurors using a large sample of jury-eligible respondents to find out what they think your case is worth.

Post-Trial Juror Interviews

How’d they come up with that? Let’s see if we can find out. Where the court will allow it, we conduct post-trial jury interviews to learn what or who most influenced the verdict decision, what argument worked and what one didn’t, and what, now that you know, might you want to change the next time you try a similar case. Whether you won or lost, there is almost always something you can learn that will make you a better lawyer.

Deep Dive Interviews

What do people really think, deep down, about your case? A large sample survey will give us a little information from a lot of people, which is critical for identifying trends and patterns. But to discover what’s driving the data, nothing beats in-depth interviews with a smaller sample of survey respondents. We call ours a “Deep Dive” because we’re going beneath the surface of the data to uncover the beliefs, biases, opinions, and motivations behind the survey responses. This kind of rich data, while anecdotal, provides valuable insight into the thoughts and feelings of decision makers. We conduct both didactic and individually structured interviews, typically using webcam technology in a virtual interview room.

Pretrial Publicity Analysis

Pretrial publicity can be merely distracting or outright devastating. If the publicity surrounding your case has you wondering whether an impartial jury is possible, let us help you find out so you can take appropriate action. Change of venue motions are rarely successful-if you can’t show overwhelming evidence that the jury pool is contaminated, you’ll be swimming up-stream. Let’s see if the evidence is there.