While focus groups are useful to a lawyer’s practice, it still seems that many lawyers lack familiarity with focus groups and their uses. Focus groups provide lawyers and consultants with essential qualitative information such as insight on how people talk, think, and feel about certain topics. However, focus groups have their certain limitations, as focus groups don’t predict how an individual on a jury might vote.
When a lawyer or attorney works on a case for a long time, his/her mind turns engulfed with the various outs and ins of the arguments, and how the lawyer exact opposite side to counteract and assumes a certain outcome. Here is a list of five tips for an attorney and limitation team for successful focus groups.
1.CONDUCT THE FOCUS GROUP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
It’s never too early to do an interactive focus group! Many attorneys now focus on their cases before they file or suit a notice for a claim. The earlier a lawyer focus on his/her case, the sooner he/she will learn what the problem spots are with the case and/or the client. Conducting a focus group early also allows the attorneys to think seriously about their case from the starting so everything is streamlined.
2. LISTEN, LISTEN AND LISTEN
One of the greatest benefit if conducting an interactive trial focus group is that the focus group’s juries get to talk a lot. You will be astonished at the level of dedication that the juries bring to the case, the willingness they devour and the passion that they show to your case. Lawyers can learn something new, hear a sound bite or discover something new that can become an underlying theme of a mock trial.
3. EXPOSE ALL THE WARTS AND WEAKNESSES
No doubt, every case, and many clients have warts or weaknesses and it’s better to embrace all these weaknesses and warts at the focus group. Don’t worry about the things that affect you about your clients and case. Instead, try to expose them all to a focus group and know what real people actually think.
4.BE READY TO CHANGE
While you think you know very well what your case is all about. But focus groups jurors will tell you what they actually think about your case. It happens because your case is complex and they must have prepared an easier theme. While it is quite hard to exclude things you have worked on, but sometimes it is important to be willing to change things about the case to win the case.
5. LEARN THE LANGUAGE USED BY REAL PEOPLE
Conversely, focus group discussions reveal the way “real” people like the jurors talk about the problems. While in the trial, you want to talk to your jurors in the language they generally use, and you will communicate the meaning you expect effectively. But In case you paraphrase you will risk that your audience might misinterpret your message.
To sum up, the above mentioned are some of the great tips for successful focus groups.