DecisionQuest/MCCA Juror Perception Survey Warns of Intense Corporate Distrust by America's Juries.

Business Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 2002

First-of-Its-Kind Survey Reveals How Age, Race, Sex, and Region Affect

Juror Attitudes

DecisionQuest and the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) today announced some surprising results from a nationwide survey that measured juror attitudes.

The first-of-its-kind survey pointed to dissatisfaction with litigation as a solution to people's problems with corporations; a deepening distrust toward corporations among an unlikely group--white males; and despite a growing resentment toward class-action plaintiff attorneys, a positive bias toward individual plaintiffs.

Key findings include:

-- More than 75 percent of white males, typically corporate America's most supportive demographic, report that they do not trust corporations and often cite news of recent events as their reason.

-- Many white jurors are more likely to support racial discrimination claims, if only because they fear accusations of racism by other jurors.

-- Juries are increasing overall cash awards due to a belief that plaintiff attorneys are taking larger percentages of the cash verdicts.

-- Jurors who live in communities with a significant corporate presence are more hostile to "big business." On average, jurors living in the South and Northeast are more hostile to corporations due to a more dense corporate presence in those areas as opposed to those in the Mid-West and West.

-- Jurors believe senior management knows everything that happens in a business from the bottom up.

-- 60 percent of American jurors would prefer to work for a small company.

"It's not healthy for America when juries are so predisposed to feelings of distrust and outright anger against the country's business place. It appears companies are going to have a more difficult time getting a fair day in court than in any other period in our nation's history," said DecisionQuest Senior Vice President Arthur Patterson.

Additional key findings of the survey report the following attitudes of eligible American jurors:

-- 76 percent are angry with corporate America for various

reasons.

-- 63 percent have developed a lesser opinion of corporations

during the past year.

-- 85 percent believe that large corporations tend to hide

information about the dangers associated with their products

and their waste until the government or a lawsuit makes them

tell the truth.

-- 76 percent believe that the way senior executives of large

companies are paid promotes corporate corruption.

-- 73 percent believe corporate auditors tend to do what their

corporate clients tell them to do, even if it means being

dishonest.

-- 71 percent believe managers and senior executives are more

prone to lie on the witness stand than lower-level employees

and expert witnesses when a large corporation is a defendant.

-- 78 percent believe many companies destroy documents hoping to

avoid taking responsibility for things that they have done.

-- 87 percent believe that corporate America must increase their

contribution to the community, with minorities demonstrating

stronger feelings about this issue than whites.

"With this survey, the attorneys who represent corporate America just learned that they have their work cut out for them more than anyone could have anticipated. They can't just choose white male jurors anymore, nor can they rely on so many of the myths that have determined jury selection in the past," said Veta Richardson, executive director of MCCA.

The research, led by DecisionQuest's Galina Davidoff, Ph.D., was based on a national phone poll of 1,000 jury eligible subjects in addition to a series of juror perception groups in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois, and California, which were ranked to be the most notorious venues by the US Chamber of Commerce State Liability Systems Ranking Study in January.

Juror perception groups were also held in Delaware and Kansas, which were among the states ranked fairest to corporations in the Chamber survey.

One positive find for corporations is that 75 percent of American jurors believe that corporate America has done an adequate to good job of protecting diversity in the workplace. Specific juror attitudes regarding product liability; employment discrimination; whistle-blowing; and environmental racism were also surveyed.

The survey reveals that American jurors' distrust in a post-Enron and WorldCom environment in America is on the rise. Corporate counsel beware.

Los Angeles-based DecisionQuest is the nation's leading trial consulting firm and specializes in jury research, demonstrative exhibits, jury selection, courtroom technology, litigation software, strategic communications, and marketing consulting.

DecisionQuest is a strategic communications firm which applies the rigors of social science research and the persuasive powers of multimedia graphic design to the problems faced by law firms, corporations and public agencies. The company has more than 160 employees and 15 offices nationwide, including those in Dallas, Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC.

DecisionQuest can be accessed via the Internet at http://www.decisionquest.com.

Washington, DC-based Minority Corporate Counsel Association (http://www.mcca.com) is a privately-funded 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation, which, since its founding in 1997, has emerged as the leading advocate for the expanded hiring, promotion, and retention of minority attorneys in corporate legal departments and the law firms that serve them.

MCCA's efforts focus on the research, collection, and dissemination of information on the status of diversity in the legal profession, benchmarking/best practices, and the use of that information to further the association's mission.