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ABOUT US

Dear Friends,

In the summer of 1998, I attended an annual attorney training conference as part of required continuing education. A young attorney was making a presentation about how to put together a mock jury on the cheap, by hiring some temps. It was a good idea, and is still useful, but I thought there just might be a better way to make mock juries more cost effective.

My mind wandered, as it often does when I am in class. A half an hour later my daydream had produced the rough outline of the system offered in this website: a large pool of jurors nationwide, available to evaluate any case submitted by any lawyer anywhere in the U.S., for fees ranging from zero to some amount negotiated freely by the parties.

I felt that this system would make a significant contribution to the cause of justice, by helping litigants, and lawyers like me, to have a much better idea of where the litigation was going to end up, and helping them to find acceptable compromise sooner. Of course, settlement eliminates risk and considerable expense. And if settlement isn't possible, the parties can be better prepared to give the jury the best presentation possible.

Years passed. Eventually I decided that the only way this was going to happen was for me to just do it. So I did.

This concept is a good example of using economies of scale. By creating a huge pool of jurors -- our goal is at least 500,000 -- and by offering their services nationally as an ongoing subscription, the cost of this service has been slashed radically. And by offering the service nationally instead of locally, we have been able to minimize the cost per member to
sustain the system.

In many cases, the jurors will respond for free, just for the fun of it. If they don't, we use a variant of the auction systems which have been so successful on the Internet. The beauty of that is that the lawyers know they pay only the minimum that the marketplace of jurors requires.

But this is in no way a "final product". It is the first offering of a system that will be developed and shaped by its users as time goes along. We want a sense of community around this system, with a newsletter and other forums for lawyers and jurors to exchange information with us and each other.

When the members see a need for the system to go in a certain direction, that is where we will go.

All it takes is for you to support the system.

Douglas L. Wilson President, ZapJury, Inc. Naples, Florida		ABOUT US Dear Friends, In the summer of 1998, I attended an annual attorney training conference as part of required continuing education. A young attorney was making a presentation about how to put together a mock jury on the cheap, by hiring some temps. It was a good idea, and is still useful, but I thought there just might be a better way to make mock juries more cost effective. My mind wandered, as it often does when I am in class. A half an hour later my daydream had produced the rough outline of the system offered in this website: a large pool of jurors nationwide, available to evaluate any case submitted by any lawyer anywhere in the U.S., for fees ranging from zero to some amount negotiated freely by the parties. I felt that this system would make a significant contribution to the cause of justice, by helping litigants, and lawyers like me, to have a much better idea of where the litigation was going to end up, and helping them to find acceptable compromise sooner. Of course, settlement eliminates risk and considerable expense. And if settlement isn't possible, the parties can be better prepared to give the jury the best presentation possible. Years passed. Eventually I decided that the only way this was going to happen was for me to just do it. So I did. This concept is a good example of using economies of scale. By creating a huge pool of jurors -- our goal is at least 500,000 -- and by offering their services nationally as an ongoing subscription, the cost of this service has been slashed radically. And by offering the service nationally instead of locally, we have been able to minimize the cost per member to sustain the system. In many cases, the jurors will respond for free, just for the fun of it. If they don't, we use a variant of the auction systems which have been so successful on the Internet. The beauty of that is that the lawyers know they pay only the minimum that the marketplace of jurors requires. But this is in no way a "final product". It is the first offering of a system that will be developed and shaped by its users as time goes along. We want a sense of community around this system, with a newsletter and other forums for lawyers and jurors to exchange information with us and each other. When the members see a need for the system to go in a certain direction, that is where we will go. All it takes is for you to support the system.