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Focus groups have played a prominent role in a string of multi-million-dollar verdicts by J. Jude Basile, a solo trial lawyer in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Whether the issue is auto safety, civil rights, elder law, product liability or employment law, Basile has used focus groups early in the litigation process to help him develop the story of the case. With a big case, he’ll often conduct up to a dozen focus groups.

“If you have a major case – a substantial injury or death case – and you are not doing focus groups, I think you are on the verge of malpractice,” he said.

Basile believes focus groups are an essential part of trial preparation.

“The idea is you’re building the case from the inside out,” he explained. “You’re learning what people think about the facts, and what they think is important, rather than a lawyer going from the outside in.”

During an interview with Lawyers USA, Basile talked about to how to harness the collective energy of focus groups to develop cases for trial.

Early and often

When it comes to focus groups, Basile’s motto is “early and often.” He sometimes conducts his first focus group just a few months after he is retained.

“Juries are a group of people that work together,” he said. “It’s a collective effort on a jury’s part to sift through evidence. So, why not start involving a group?”

In the early stages of litigation, he will use focus groups “just to determine what they think about little pieces of the case.”

For a case in San Diego involving alleged police negligence that is slated for trial next May, Basile expects to conduct up to a dozen focus groups.

He’s already conducted four groups, questioning participants about their expectations of police. Typical questions include: “What do you expect from a police force? What was your first experience with a policeman? What do you remember from that?”

The idea is to gauge participants’ general attitudes and beliefs about police.

For a dangerous highway case in northern California, Basile showed an early focus group photos of the roadway. He didn’t tell them anything about the accident, but instead asked basic questions, such as: “What do you folks think of that roadway? What would you want to know about this roadway? Who would you contact? What should be done now?

“I use people to guide and supplement me, and then I go and do discovery with that in mind,” he said.

In the police case, for example, after talking with several focus groups in general terms about police, Basile videotaped a deposition with the police officer who was involved. He plans to show clips from the video deposition to other focus groups and ask them to evaluate how the officer reacted in the situation.

Role-playing

Basile is on the faculty of the Trial Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyo., an organization founded by Wyoming trial lawyer Gerry Spence that teaches lawyers to use role-playing techniques in their trial practices. It’s not surprising that when he’s conducting a focus group, Basile often asks participants to play the roles of different individuals in the case.

“If you can get people into the role of someone else and have them exploring the role through that person’s eyes, it gives you a lot more insight,” he said.

In the early stages of the San Diego case, Basile asked focus group members to take turns playing the role of the officer and others involved in the incident. Other participants played members of a citizen review board and asked the officer questions about the incident.

“By doing that early in the case, you get great ideas,” he said. “It’s much more effective than just thinking and brainstorming.”

For example, lawyers in the case were focused on the officer pushing the client to the ground. But the focus group members were more concerned about the officer’s initial decision to chase the client.

“The story of the case and discovery were then developed with this initial decision in mind,” Basile said.

Hands-on style

For Basile, there’s no substitute for personal involvement.

Months before a trial, he visits the local courthouse to attend a juror orientation and see what the local jury pool looks like. Not only does it help him relate better to actual jurors once the trial starts, but it gives him a clearer idea of the jury pool’s demographics.

When he’s running focus groups, Basile usually rents a hotel room and hires two groups of 15 participants each through a local temp agency. When he calls the agency, he specifies the age, gender and other characteristics he’d like in the focus groups.

Another way to round up participants is by going to the courthouse months before the trial and passing out flyers that offer $50 to anyone excused from jury duty to “evaluate a court case.”

Morning focus groups usually run from 8:30 a.m. to noon; afternoon sessions go from about 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The total cost per day – including the hotel, participants and light refreshments – typically runs from $700 to $1,200.

And if you can’t afford that, you can always initiate an informal focus group wherever you find a group of strangers.

“If I’m on an airplane and get a middle seat, that’s two people for a focus group,” Basile said. “Start by talking about the big issues in the case, or even how much people hate lawyers. You can always start with that.”

Questions or comments can be directed to the writer at: nora.tooher@lawyersusaonline.com

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