Like Internet Relay Chat (IRC), all communication between participants during a virtual jury research study take place in real time.
Through this carefully planned and conducted online jury research process, attorneys and jury consultants are able to spotlight the key trial issues the online research jurors consider most important; and to then determine with the maximum degree of available certainty how these issues should be presented during the upcoming trial to achieve courtroom success.
Findings can be used to forecast jury verdicts; detect possible juror bias; evaluate demonstrative aids; plan trial strategy, and so on.
But with virtual jury research which benefits from the availability online of literally millions of potential case study participants—research jurors can quickly be located and solicited to participate, which they can do so effortlessly via their home computers.
However, these much less refined methodologies do not present the same type of scientifically valid and meaningful research results that can be achieved through stratified sampling.
But with the Internet, and its hundreds of millions of users worldwide, stratified sampling is not a problem; hence the value of virtual jury research in comparison to more standardized formats.