Deliberations’ 2009 Guide To Jury Blogs And Feeds

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I just found a jury blog I didn’t know about. It’s called Things That Make You Go Hmmm . . . , from the jury consulting firm Jury Impact. They’ve been up for just under a year, with 36 anonymous posts in that time. Like most blogs, it’s mostly links to and comments on news stories (Dennis Quaid and the juror who went undercover) and new science (half of smokers keep smoking even after a cancer diagnosis, and what that might mean). But at least one post is based on their own data: the authors say that in 600 mock verdicts in medical malpractice cases involving infants, jurors with children living at home were significantly more likely to find for the plaintiff. That’s helpful to know.

So here’s my current list of jury-specific blogs and other feeds:

• The Science of Small Talk, Prof. Sam Sommers writing for Psychology Today. It’s not always directly about juries (although the current series is), but juries are a large part of his scholarly focus, so it’s relevant even when the word “jury” isn’t used.
• Thaddeus Hoffmeister’s Juries, steadily strong.
• Jury consultant Dennis Elias’s JuryVox “micro-blog” on Twitter. You have to join Twitter to “follow” Dennis there, and there’s no better reason to sign up; nobody delivers more value in 140 characters.
• The news feed at Jury Experiences, which collects news and blog posts about juries better than anyone else and includes an amazing archive of jurors’ own blog entries.
• The American Society of Trial Consultants’ The Jury Expert (bimonthly magazine) and announcements feed (occasional stories of interest). I praised TJE here yesterday, but should give full disclosure: I’m on ASTC’s Communications Committee, and will shortly join the board. So don’t take my word for it, take Mark Bennett’s; TJE is very good.
• The National Center for State Courts’ Jur-E-Bulletin, an indispensable resource in your E-mail every Friday morning.
• Edward Schwartz’s The Jury Box blog, where posts are occasional but insightful.
• Things That Make You Go Hmmm . . . . , Jury Impact Consulting
• Chris Dominic’s blog at Tsongas Litigation Consulting, one post a month for quite awhile now.
• Harry Plotkin’s Jury Tip Of The Month newsletter. There’s no RSS feed for these, and I can’t even find an E-mail subscription form, but if you write to Harry Plotkin (his address is on his site), I’m sure he’ll put you on the list. The newsletters are excellent.
• Clay Conrad’s jurygeek, Robert Kelley’s Florida Jury Selection Blog, and Rich Matthews’ Juryology, all quiet in recent months but I stay subscribed just in case.

Of course there’s a much longer list of bloggers and others who talk about juries as part of their larger discussion of trials, criminal defense, courts, or social science. Some of those are in the blogroll in the sidebar, and I’ll try to make more lists from time to time.

If you know of other jury-specific resources on line, please do comment below.