The Litigation Psychology Podcast - Episode 293 - The Year in Review 2025

Bill Kanasky, Jr., Ph.D. and Steve Wood, Ph.D. take a look back at some cases the CSI team worked on during 2025 and share stories, takeaways, and lessons learned. Bill and Steve talk about what causes witness deposition failures and why leveraging neurocognitive witness training leads to improve deposition testimony. They talk about why the work attorneys do to prep witnesses are often inadequate and why its not the attorney's fault. Bill and Steve also provide updates on recent changes in how CSI conducts jury research and how focus group research has transformed case development and strategy for attorneys. They describe the importance of validity and reliability in jury research and how conducting exploratory research like focus groups vs. confirmatory research like mock trials can significantly improve litigation management decisions. Lastly, they discuss alternatives to traditional jury selection and why a focus on voir dire questioning strategy (i.e. disruptive voir dire) and opening statement construction is much more useful than having a jury consultant sitting next to the legal team during jury selection.