The Litigation Psychology Podcast - Episode 86 - Buyer‘s Remorse

Dr. Steve Wood joins Dr. Bill Kanasky to discuss the topic of buyer's remorse in litigation consulting. Bill shares some recent examples of clients who have invested in witness training and/or jury research, win their case or otherwise get a favorable result, but then have buyer's remorse when they get the invoice. Steve talks about the psychology of what causes that perspective, the underlying human behavior and motivation, and explains and describes "approach motivation" and "avoidance motivation". Bill and Steve talk about the disconnect between the identified need in advance of the outcome and the feeling about the decision after the fact and how these decisions are interpreted or rationalized afterwards. They also bring up the challenge in the insurance industry about how the person paying the bill (the Claims person) isn't the one who directly realizes the benefit from the favorable outcome. Claims has to fund the expense but doesn't receive the benefit when the witness training or research results in a positive outcome and this disconnect is a challenge. This buyer's remorse can be experienced by attorneys and law firms too. Lastly, Steve and Bill answer some listener questions including the difference between a focus group and a mock trial, the biggest mistakes to avoid in a mock trial, optimal number of jurors for a mock trial, and more. Watch the video version of this episode: https://bit.ly/3zEGXkE