Litigation Surveys

Litigation surveys are surveys that are used in legal proceedings. Like surveys in nonlitigation contexts, they measure opinions, attitudes, and behavior among representative samples of the general public, consumers, employees, and other populations. They afford a useful mechanism for collecting and evaluating opinions or experiences of large groups of individuals bearing on disputed issues in civil and criminal lawsuits. When administered by independent persons who qualify as court expert witnesses in survey methodology by reason of their knowledge, experience, and education, these group assessments may provide more trustworthy information on legal questions than the testimony of a handful of witnesses chosen by an interested party.

State and federal courts throughout the United States now regularly admit survey evidence. However, before 1963, survey respondents' statements were considered ...