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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Insurance

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, January 9, 2024

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE course will provide attorneys litigating common bad faith or coverage issues with strategic techniques for jury selection. The panel will discuss preparing for voir dire, the practical usefulness of social media and questionnaires, juror profiles, dealing with tainted jurors, and avoiding common mistakes during voir dire.

Faculty

Eliot M. Harris
Member
Williams Kastner

Mr. Harris' practice focuses on commercial litigation with an emphasis on insurance coverage, including general liability coverage, intellectual property coverage, construction defect coverage, and professional liability coverage. He also is experienced defending lawsuits involving catastrophic personal injuries, environmental toxic tort, intellectual property and product liability matters. He wrote an article for the Business Litigation Committee Newsletter of the ABA, on insurer's duty to defend, The Duty to Defend: What Insurers, Insureds and Their Counsel Need to Know When Faced With a Liability Coverage Dispute.

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Robert E. Ray
Chief Trial Consultant
Veritas Research, LP

As a trial consultant, Dr. Ray brings a wealth of experience to the table, both as a trial consultant and as a trial attorney. Since 1998, he has provided research and courtroom consulting to attorneys in cases throughout the United States, including theme development and strategy advice. He has provided research and consulting advice in mass tort actions such as tobacco and pharmaceutical litigation to insurance disputes and entertainment and publishing cases.

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Description

Jury selection is a critical element to winning a bad faith or coverage case. Counsel must uncover jurors with biases against his or her client on key issues, such as liability or damages. Prospective juror attitudes are usually based on their own experiences regarding such things as personal responsibility, what counts as fair or unfair conduct, or even broken promises.

Time-tested jury selection techniques help litigators develop insights into the attitudes of potential jurors, and thus identify those they do not want to serve. Ongoing jury science into how jurors decide cases and what attitudes are most impactful build on those techniques.

Listen as our authoritative panel discusses successful techniques in preparing for voir dire, eliciting potential biases among prospective jurors, and selecting a jury that will be most open to supporting a client's position in bad faith or coverage case.

Outline

  1. Governing law
    1. Statutory rules
    2. Types of jury selection
  2. Jury selection in bad faith cases
    1. Claims handling
    2. Failure to defend
    3. Failure to settle within limits
  3. Jury selection in coverage cases
    1. Policyholder/assignee as plaintiff
    2. Declaratory judgment actions--insurer as plaintiff
  4. Supplemental juror questionnaires

Benefits


The panel will review these and other crucial issues:

  • How does one convince a judge to allow the use of juror questionnaires, and how are they best used efficiently and effectively?
  • Are there certain juror "profiles" to avoid in bad faith or coverage cases?
  • When might an employee of an insurer be a good juror for policyholders?