Kelley | Uustal Trial Attorneys was part of the Florida Justice Association’s 2026 Christian D. Searcy Voir Dire Institute. The firm’s Managing Partner, Manny Serra-Jovenich, and Critical Case Unit Director, Roland Ochoa, walked the attendees through the Kelley | Uustal Jury Research Process: what to look for, the workflow that keeps a research team disciplined, and the ethical boundaries every team needs to understand.
“Trial lawyers often say you can win or lose your case before opening statements are ever given. You don’t know where that person’s biases, experiences, or beliefs lie. Yet those hidden perspectives may have a greater impact on your case than the obvious ones. The challenge is discovering whether that juror will help or hurt your case, without tipping your hand to opposing counsel.” — Manny Serra-Jovenich, K|U Managing Partner
What K|U Covered
- OSINT vs. SOCMINT. OSINT is every public record out there: court files, property data, news. SOCMINT is the social media slice inside it: profiles, posts, communities. Successful research depends as much on the researcher as the tools: observe jurors in court as well as online.
- The workflow. Build your team. Calculate time per researcher. Search systematically. Communicate your findings.
- What to look for, platform by platform. LinkedIn surfaces employer and corporate loyalty. Facebook surfaces political views, groups, life events, grievances. Instagram surfaces lifestyle, values, social circle. TikTok surfaces cultural identity and worldview. Reddit surfaces anonymous opinions and hidden affiliations. The list goes on, and each platform tells a different part of the story.
- Look beyond posts. Track over time. Patterns matter more than any single post: identity markers, community membership, leadership roles, political engagement, hidden affiliations. Go back in time when needed.
- The ethical line. Where research ends and overreach begins, and why that line matters as much as the research itself.
Why It Matters
Voir dire gives you minutes. A juror’s public history gives you months, sometimes years. The gap between what someone says in a courtroom and what they’ve said everywhere else is where real insight lives.
The firms leading the way on disciplined digital intelligence are changing the odds.
