Businesses' fear of U.S. jury system is irrational - The Nelson ...

Houston Chronicle an excellent opinion by Tom Melsheimer (managing principal at Fish & Richardson in Dallas) and Craig David Smith (judge of the 192nd Civil District Court in Dallas County)

With no shortage of real threats to keep U.S. executives awake at night, it's surprising that so much time and energy is wasted trying to make sure that 12 average citizens in a jury box are not allowed to hear their business grievances. This fear of the jury system has become a pervasive phobia for many in corporate America.

Take former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, which spent four years and no doubt an enormous amount of legal fees fighting tooth and nail to keep a jury from hearing Jamie Leigh Jones' claims that she was drugged and raped by a KBR coworker while working for the defense contractor in Iraq. Like many of its business peers, the Houston-based KBR instead preferred to have the claim handled discreetly, behind closed doors, in what is widely believed to be a more business-friendly arbitration venue. In fact, the case wound up in a federal courtroom in Houston only after U.S. Senate intervention that made a sexual assault exception for the standard employee arbitration clauses for defense contractors.

Funny thing, when jurors were finally allowed to weigh the evidence earlier this month, they agreed that Jones' claims were not supported by the evidence and testimony. Meanwhile, the public airing of the allegations in open court revealed key holes in the evidence and gaps in Jones' account of what happened. The jury also heard compelling evidence that she had exaggerated and embellished her claims, among them that KBR locked her in a shipping container and restricted her access to a telephone after she reported the attack.

Had this case been resolved in arbitration as KBR had originally hoped, the outcome likely would have been the same. But the lack of transparency inherent in arbitration proceedings would have done nothing to resolve doubt about the allegations and the final outcome. KBR's favorable outcome would have been additional ammunition for those inclined to think the worst of its parent company at the time, Halliburton, whose former CEO, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was one of the Iraq war's most vocal supporters.

The Northwestern reporter

The Southwestern reporter

McEachin's annotated civil statutes of the state of Texas

The Supreme Court reporter

Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of Alabama