One of the primary challenges of defending a hospital in a medical malpractice case is the unavoidable fact that jurors are being asked to take sides between a largely faceless institution and a flesh-and-blood plaintiff who is likely to engender sympathy. It often feels like the defense is starting at an automatic disadvantage.
Our recent nationwide survey of jury-eligible participants found that 79 percent of respondents said they trust nurses and 76 percent said they trust doctors. As a comparison, only 20 percent said they trust corporations. Interestingly, men and women among all age groups displayed high levels of trust in doctors and nurses, although respondents 45 or older were slightly more trusting.
We believe it is also likely that trust in doctors and nurses – and perhaps also hospitals as institutions – will rise even higher during the coming months due to healthcare providers’ front-line role in the coronavirus crisis, similar to the respect police and firefighters experienced in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
So what does this mean for courtroom strategy? Obviously, you want to present your hospital client as a collection of people rather than as a corporation. We recommend making an experienced, compassionate nurse who will be in court every day the face of your trial team. If a hospital administrator is needed to testify about policy or procedures, the Chief Nursing Officer or Chief Medical Officer – or someone else with a medical background – would be preferable to an executive with a business background.
Humanizing a hospital – or any corporate defendant – will always remain a challenge, but it is achievable if you make the right choices about which witnesses to present at trial.
If you have deposition or mock deposition video of a key hospital or corporate witness, we can help you gauge how jurors might respond to that person with a quick, affordable online survey. Contact Partner/Senior Vice President Claire Luna at cluna@juryimpact.net to find out more.
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With all in-person projects postponed until June at the earliest, we have turned to web conference focus groups to address our clients’ research needs in a timely fashion. Even while travel and courts are at a standstill, there is still a strong interest in developing case strategy – especially when mediation and settlement deadlines are looming this summer.
Through Zoom, we have developed an effective, innovative and virtual way to conduct focus groups that allows the same kind of challenging and juror-driven discussion you love from Jury Impact. Juror predispositions, case facts, arguments, witness videos and damages can all be tested while you observe and communicate with our backroom analysts to make sure the research stays focused on your priorities.
Jurors are craving both social interaction and financial compensation right now, and this format allows your trial team to safely explore their perspectives through virtual-only research. Contact us for more information on this approach, or a no-cost webinar to see exactly how this works.
