Having been recently called to federal court for jury duty, I never considered the impact generation gaps and technology potentially have on those men and women called to serve as a juror. I was reminded of this when I recently read an article posted on Above The Law entitled “Millennial Jurors: Entertain Us”. Author Keith Lee points how jurors are not only getting younger (going from ‘grey hair’ to ‘blue hair’) but how they process information has also dramatically changed thanks to their rampant use of technology.
Attention spans are shortening and how this generation processes information is also changing. The article references a piece called “The Millennial Juror” that was published in the Texas Bar Journal a few years back. They concluded:
“Verbally presented messages should be accompanied by demonstrative exhibits which foster attention, reduced boredom, enhanced memory, increased credibility, and entertainment value."
It appears that ‘how you dress’ and ‘how you hold yourself’ are getting competing priorities based on how the profile of the juror pool changes and continues to become “millennial”. These changes potentially impact all aspects of a case as it is not just about the facts, but increasing sensitivities and nuances of HOW those facts are presented based on the profile of the jury.
It is a very interesting article, and I welcome you to give it a read here: https://abovethelaw.com/2014/12/millennial-jurors-entertain-us/.
Thank you to all of our trial lawyer clients and prospects for fighting the good fight for all of us, and for continuing to be our keys to the courtroom.
Vice President – Business Development