Terror Attacks Raising New Issues for Trial Consultants.

Employment discrimination attorney Lee Feldman was supposed to have a case go to trial on Sept. 17, but his client is Egyptian -- and he believed that anti-Arabic sentiment could hurt him. So he got the case postponed.

Feldman isn't alone.

Many attorneys fear that jurors have new views about Arab-Americans, law enforcement officials and particular types of lawsuits. They also fear that jurors have too much on their minds to concentrate on a lengthy court case.

As attorneys become concerned about how these will affect case outcomes, trial consultants -- the people who give lawyers advice on how juries may react -- are busier than ever assessing which cases will be impacted.

"We're starting to get much busier right now," said Richard Gabriel, president of Decision Analysis Inc. in L.A. and president-elect of the American Society of Trial Consultants, which has about 400 members nationwide.

"We're getting more calls from additional clients, calls from current clients, and studies that were already planned are getting expanded a bit to address these questions."

Trial consultants are compiling five- to 10-page questionnaires that ask how jurors feel about the terrorist attacks, whether they have been directly affected or how much news programming they are watching. Surveys and studies are just now starting to be drafted, said Gabriel, whose own firm is in the process of conducting a telephone poll.

But some consultants are finding that despite attorneys' concerns, their clients cannot afford to conduct mock trials and focus groups that traditionally have been used to pre-determine jurors' views on a particular type of case.

"Clients are watching their budgets and their litigation costs," said Gilbert Calvillo Jr., a licensed trial consultant in Beverly Hills and clinical psychologist.

For many, it's too early to gauge how the terrorist situation will affect jurors' views. Most consultants are relying on how juries reacted to other crises -- like the Gulf War or the Northridge Earthquake -- to determine possible outcomes. But these events pale in comparison to the events of Sept. 11.

Among the cases that could possibly be impacted are those involving Arab-Americans, or individuals who look like Arab-Americans.

"From the past, people don't make distinctions between different groups from different counties," said Karen Jo Koonan, a senior trial consultant who works with Dan Stormer, the local civil rights attorney involved in the recent $3.7 million settlement between the Los Angeles Police Department and a former civilian employee.

There are other concerns: that jurors will be too lenient on police in abuse cases, and in less severe cases, like car accidents, job firings or personal conflicts, they may have less sympathy toward victims.

"They'll compare the losses of the cases to the horrific losses of Sept. 11 rather than judging the case on its own merits," Koonan said.

Jurors could have more sympathy for cases involving a loss of business and may be friendlier toward airlines and airline employees. They also may have greater sympathy in cases where an individual asserts the right to own a gun.

Trial consultants are advising attorneys to be careful about using words like "victim" and "damage" that might draw connections to the news coverage of the attacks. And they're asking attorneys to request that judges re-assert the importance of concentrating on the facts of the case, not any similarities to the terrorist attacks.