Our team provides decades of experience as expert psychologists and trial lawyers.
We help you select the services that will have the most impact on your case and ensure the insights gathered are clear and shared in a way that can be implemented at trial.
Our Team
Camillus Trial Consulting was founded by Dr. Courtney Camillus, a psychologist, and John Camillus, a trial attorney, to assist attorneys in preparing their cases in a manner that maximizes the likelihood of successful trial results.
Services
Our goal is to help you be successful in trial. We look forward to discussing your unique matter and finding ways to ensure your case is presented as effectively as possible in the courtroom. We offer a variety of services to achieve that goal:
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Focus Groups
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Mock Trials
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Theme Development
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Witness Preparation
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Jury Selection
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Shadow Juries
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Administration Assistance
Empirical Trial Strategies
Our core belief is that the questions that lawyers have about how to best try a given case – Are female jurors likely to sympathize with, or be tougher on, my female client? Should I mention the amount that I want the jury to award in damages during voir dire? Will I score points or lose points with an aggressive cross-examination of a particular witness? – can be answered empirically. We believe that, when deciding on a trial approach, too many attorneys go with a hunch to answer these types of questions, rather than engaging in testing to actually figure out the right answer. We help attorneys figure it out.
The best lawyers recognize that they don't think like jurors. The number one trial mistake that lawyers make is to try a case that appeals to themselves (as lawyers), rather than to try a case that appeals to the jury (of non-lawyers). The number one trial preparation mistake that lawyers make is failing to test how to make the case appeal to non-lawyers. Doctors should not prescribe medications to treat diseases until those medications have been tested to make sure that they work. Engineers don’t design a bridge using a material until it has been tested to make sure that it is strong enough. Likewise, lawyers should not try cases without testing to know how their evidence and arguments will be received.
Our firm understands the importance of conducting focus groups and mock trials to enable attorneys to figure out, empirically, the best possible way to persuade lay jurors at trial – to get inside the mind of the jury.