Key Takeaways
A deepening political division and eroding trust in the U.S. justice system are increasing corporate legal risks, with a 2025 survey showing 47 percent of potential jurors now hold biases against large companies.
"Whatever you see in society at large you see in the jury deliberation room,” said jury consultant Laurie Kuslansky. “The isolation of Covid and the political divide are making us more and more disabled as a society to disagree and then reach consensus and compromise.”
The survey from Orrick and Trial Partners found 57 percent of potential jurors distrust the justice system, up from 48 percent in 2022. It also showed 65 percent are willing to follow their conscience over a judge's instructions, a sharp rise from 43 percent in 2018.
This growing juror independence raises the probability of hung juries and mistrials, creating a "litigation overhang" that can destabilize stock prices and significantly increase legal defense costs for publicly traded firms.
The challenges were starkly illustrated in a recent Florida opioid lawsuit against pharmacy giants CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens. After a nearly three-month trial, the jury deadlocked after 14 days of contentious deliberations, resulting in a mistrial. The parties now face the expense of retrying the entire case.
Jurors in the Florida case described the deliberation room as "insane." Conflicts ranged from accusations of secret meetings to one juror ripping up another's poster. "You realize, man, I would not want my life to be in the hands of 12 strangers,” juror Dwayne Blake recalled.
"In a world where juror nullification is increasingly more the rule rather than the exception, feeling good about the facts might not be enough,” said David McGill, a lawyer at Orrick. This sentiment is echoed by a 2025 DOAR survey on white-collar cases, which found juror skepticism is becoming a more dominant factor than traditional pro-prosecution or pro-defense leanings. For corporate defendants, this means even a factually strong case can be derailed by a handful of jurors who are fundamentally distrustful of the system and the corporations within it.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
