Recently CSVL Health Care Practice Group Leader Eric Frisch had the opportunity to interview R&D Strategic Solutions’ James McGarity. James and Eric discussed potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on jury pools and seated juries for the CSVL Health Law and Regulation Update Blog.

James, a nationally renowned Jury Consultant, is a partner in R&D Strategic Solutions. James has been studying jury behavior and trial strategy since 1999, and is a recognized expert in medical malpractice cases. In addition to consulting on more than two thousand medical malpractice cases, James has consulted on many other civil and criminal matters, including product liability, premises liability, copyright/patent litigation, white-collar crime, and many other types of litigation in venues across the country. Mr. McGarity has assisted clients with jury research, case strategy preparation, jury selection, voir dire question development, witness preparation, and post-verdict analyses. He is an expert in research methodology and survey design, and has been a speaker at numerous CLE events and legal conferences, including the Alabama Bar Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the Arkansas Association of Defense Counsel, the Georgia Bar Association, the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys (VADA), the Memphis Bar Association, Emory University School of Law, and the University of Montana School of Law Advanced Trial Advocacy Program. James has also appeared frequently on Court TV, as a guest expert in jury behavior on shows hosted by Yodit Tewolde, Julie Grant, Seema Iyer, and Vince Politan, covering high profile trials across the country. R&D Strategic Solutions.

ERIC:    James, professionally, how is your pandemic going? Have you been working on jury research projects?

JAMES:    Our work slowed down a bit during the first few months of the pandemic, but has picked up substantially in the last few months. We have been doing jury research projects over the last year, but quite a bit more since the beginning of the year.

ERIC:    From the exercises, what is the general mood of the jury pool out there?

JAMES:    Uncertainty is the general mood. Jurors are keeping a closer eye on safety and safety related issues, having lived through such a significant event just this far, and we don’t know when it will be over for sure. There is also uncertainty about when the pandemic is going to end, how we will come out of it financially and in terms of our health, and how our economy will rebound from the lockdown periods. There is even more focused uncertainty among the population . . . . . .click here to read more.