Civil Procedure Commons^™

This Is Your Sword: Does Plaintiff Prior Conviction Evidence Affect Civil Trial Outcomes, Deirdre Bowen, Kathryn Stanchi

Faculty Articles

The conventional wisdom in law is that a prior conviction is one of the most powerful and damaging pieces of evidence that can be offered against a witness or party. In legal lore, prior convictions seriously undercut the credibility of the witness and can derail the outcome of a trial. This article suggests that may not always be true. This article details the results of an empirical study of juror decision-making that challenges the conventional wisdom about prior convictions. In our study, the prior conviction evidence did not have a direct impact on the outcome of the civil trial or …