Are Holiday Season Juries More Giving?

December 24, 2011

By Dallas and Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal

(972) 562-7549

texasdefensefirm.com

The Dallas Morning New published an article this morning discussing whether holiday season juries are more sympathetic than other times of the year which you can read here.

It’s an article about a moderately interesting topic.  The article doesn’t pretend to be scientific  — which is good because no matter what anyone tells you, there is always a large element of junk science to predicting what juries will do.

My question is if a jury is being sympathetic to one party doesn’t this mean they’re being mean to another?  I can see a case to be made for a jury awarding a plaintiff more money from a monolithic insurance company — or a jury giving a criminal defendant the benefit of the doubt against the monolithic state (which they should be doing anyway).

Besides, most Courts really don’t try cases with juries for more than one or two weeks in December, anyway.

*Jeremy Rosenthal is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas. Nothing in this article is intended to be legal advice.  For legal advice about any situation you should contact an attorney directly.  Contact the attorney through this forum does not create an attorney-client relationship.  Communications sent through this blog are not confidential.