Applied Litigation Research

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designs have been strongly criticized (Saks, 1976), in large part because they tend to fall short when used as the principle methodology to anticipate the essentially dynamic character of a trial.
The tactical environment of an ongoing trial is fluid. Quantitative methodologies appear to lack the requisite flexibility to grasp the changed meaning of issues as they emerge in the courtroom. In short, once a trial begins, pretrial quantitative research may be overtaken by unanticipated events. The utility of strategic themes, the integration of developing arguments vis-a-vis an opponent's claims, and revision of potential cross-examination scripts must be evaluated continually in light of daily trial experience.

Consequently, a major task for an applied research team is to link pretrial efforts with techniques that can incorporate dynamic developments in the conflict. Participant observation is one of the few approaches which can assimilate holistic knowledge and diverse data for ...

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able to examine the interpretation of interaction during the trial and use these ideas as a guide for continued strategy development. Consequently, sociologists should find a multifaceted methodological approach very useful in applied litigation research.

This paper examines the utility of a combined methodological strategy applied in support of a multimillion dollar contract dispute. A case history of this 6-day civil trial is presented to evaluate the reports from participant observers against the results of pretrial research and trial simulation conducted prior to and independent of the observational data reported below. The main objective is to begin exploration of how diverse ...

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