Human error is one of the most commonly-experienced and misunderstood aspects of human behavior. It is fascinating in many regards, not the least of which is its persistence. There is no such thing as error-free human performance, at least over any significant length of time.
The natural tendency of jurors is to believe that anyone committing an error must have been inattentive, stupid, or, worse, simply uncaring. However, human error has been studied for decades and described in detail in many scientific papers. The list of useless error mitigation methods is too long to contemplate.
A human factors professional can put human error into the proper perspective by describing what we know of the phenomenon and the conditions that either increase of decrease the likelihood of errors.
Jurors often need to hear a balanced perspective on human error, rather than the typically one-sided arguments put forth by one or the other side in a legal dispute.
