Jury Impact is finalist for innovative business award

A Costa Mesa-based company was a finalist in the category for companies with less than 100 employees for the 2007 American Business Awards’ Most Innovative Company.

Jury Impact applies marketing and political principles to court trial research. The company’s area of expertise is creating focus groups before a trial to help lawyers refine their arguments before bringing it to the courtroom.

“Too often lawyers know so much about a case that they forget that, in the end, jurors are going to care most about the fairness and how you define fairness is really dependent on what story you heard,” President and founder Chris St. Hilaire said. “So instead of arguing the law, you need to argue what jurors think is fair and what jurors want to know about — and applying marketing principles really allows you to shape the story in a way that’s meaningful to them.”

— Amanda Pennington