Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

In the US, it is common to hire a  focus group to do a mock trial prior to actually having a trial on a case.  This is practice to see the jury reactions to case evidence, witnesses.  The result in litigation depends a lot on juries and who shows up as a juror on the day of jury duty.  Many times, jurors do not listen to jury instructions, or someone who has a certain predicted belief may be swayed by another juror unexpectedly who has a strong personality in the jury room.  These jurors thought to be sympathetic at first change sides.

This method of resolving employment disputes differs from European countries such as Germany where 87% of the employees are represented by works councils.  Works councils assist in resolving employment disputes.  The US has unions also.  Unions though, only represent about 17% of the employees.  If an employee is in a union, the union representative takes the employee through the grievance procedures.  Employers may have their own grievance procedures.  If an employee does not exhaust the administrative remedies, he/she may have more difficulty in proving his/her case in court.  This is because the employee is less likely able to show good faith in resolving the dispute.  The US may have fewer unions than other countries because class actions give labor leverage that is gotten in other countries by unions.