According to Bloom Strategic Consulting, Dallas County juries distrust corporate America, believe that litigation is an effective way to police corporate abuse, and in general agree that juries award the right amount of damages.
Yesterday I came across this report published by Bloom Strategic Consulting, which I found fascinating. Bloom asked approximately 1,000 prospective Dallas County jurors about their perspectives on litigation. The results of the project showed that overall 70% the prospective jurors agreed that lawsuits are a good way to keep companies honest. Interestingly, 80% of the respondents between the ages of 18 and 30 agreed that lawsuits are a good way to keep companies honest.
Among African Americans, 76% of the respondents agreed that company policies are not applied equally among all employees.
Three out of 4 respondents agreed that too many people are using lawyers to get away with wrongful conduct.
Among all respondents, only 34% agreed that people who file lawsuits against companies are just trying to get some money that they do not deserve. Only 16% of the African American respondents agreed that people who file lawsuits are trying to get money that they do not deserve. Consistent with these responses, 56% of the respondents felt that the monetary damages awarded by juries was “about right.” Bloom further broke down the respondents to the damages question by sex and age. Males felt that juries got it “about right” 49% of the time, while females trusted that juries awarded the right damages 62% of the time. The respondents over age 65 felt that juries got the damages right only 35% of the time.
I love statistics like the ones reported in the Bloom report. To me, the most important take away is that prospective Dallas County jurors in general tend to be more distrustful of corporate America than I might have expected. Notwithstanding tort reform, Dallas County jurors believe that juries award the right amount of damages. According to Bloom’s results, these trends are tied to age and sex, with younger jurors and female jurors believing that lawsuits are an effective way to reign in corporate America.