We consider a model of crime with rational Bayesian Jurors. We find that if jurors are not perfectly informed, even when there is no limit to the size of the punishment that can be imposed, it is not possible to deter all crime. There is a finite lower bound on the crime rate which results from the difficulties in achieving a conviction with imperfect evidence and very low crime rates. Crime ca...

Throughout its history, the jury has attracted both stiff criticism and unqualified praise, viewed by turns as an incompetent, naïve, and biased decision maker and as an astute repository of folk wisdom and common sense. Here, we examine how the American jury actually behaves in the tort cases that produce the majority of civil jury trials. The evidence shows that juries usually use reasonable ...

Giving attorneys more power in the voir dire (jury selection) process may allow them to 1) more easily dismiss jurors whom they wish to strike on a priori grounds; 2) acquire information that enables them to identify favorably-inclined jurors more precisely; or both. Attorneys who are more skilled can better leverage their increased power to retain the jurors they prefer. We show theoretically ...

Mass tort scholars, practitioners, and judges struggle with determining the most efficient approach to adjudicate sometimes tens of thousands of cases. Favoring class actions, mass tort scholars and judges have assumed that litigating any issue once is best. But while litigating any one issue could conceivably save attorneys’ fees and court resources, a single adjudication of thousands of mass ...

The Global Burden of Disease report published in 1996 predicted that by 2020 the majority of illness burden globally will be from in-juries, mental illness, and chronic diseases. Patients with many of the disorders leading the list frequently require emergent care. This article provides a brief literature-based introduction to these and other important topics relevant to international developme...

We analyze time-costly decision-making in committees by privately informed individuals, such as juries, panels, boards, etc. In the spirit of the Coase Conjecture, we show that the decision is ‘almost instantaneous’ when individuals entertain identical objectives. Delay can only be understood as the outcome of conflicting (biased) objectives.

Neil Vidmar and Reid Hastie would surely be at the top of anyone's list of the leading scholars in the jury research community, David Schkade and John Payne are major figures in the broader judgment and decision-making community. All four are careful, sophisticated theorists and researchers. Any dispute involving the four of them is bound to be a productive one for the field. I will argue that ...

computerised objective method of measuring facial palsy. Lengthening temporalis myoplasty versus hypoglossal-facial nerve coaptation in the surgical rehabilitation of facial palsy: evaluation by medical and nonmedical juries and patient-assessed quality of life. bacteriology of chronic adenoid disease in children. Légzési elégtelenséget okozó congenitalis kevert (lymphoid-venosus) vascularis ha...