To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: Critics of the jury system, or simply those who are nervous about taking part, will sometimes characterize a jury’s result as a kind of crap shoot. The feeling is that they’re inconsistent, and subject to the idiosyncrasies of group influence. “A jury can do anything,” I’ve sometimes heard counsel tell their clients. That is an attitude that can make attorneys and clients less trusting in the deliberation process, and more conservative than they ought to be about going to trial. That fear can sometimes put its thumb on the scale in favor of an unwise settlement.