LSAT 158 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q16

LR Question 16 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Journalist: When judges do not maintain strict control over…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: Lawyers’ obstructions prevent juries from reaching correct verdicts.

REASONING: If judges don’t control their courtrooms, lawyers will influence juries’ verdicts.

ANALYSIS: The journalist has correctly proven that lawyers can influence juries. His mistake is assuming that any level of influence guarantees a bad outcome.

Suppose a prosecutor says “The defendant is evil criminal scum” cause the judge was napping. The journalist assumes this has a high chance of wrecking the verdict. Maybe it influences you a tiny bit, but if the defence lawyer has conclusive evidence their client couldn’t have done the crime, you’d probably still acquit, right? Some level of influence doesn’t mean a large level of influence.

___________

1. We can’t infer this. The stimulus talks about judges who DON’T strictly control their courtrooms, and says that can cause doubt in the verdict. It doesn’t say anything about judges who ARE strict.
    
   Further, this answer says “sometimes”. That could mean one time, which doesn’t matter. “Some” answers are almost always wrong on strengthen/weaken questions.
2. This answer choice is an irrelevant comparison between judges’ and lawyers’ concerns. Also there’s a scope shift: the stimulus talks about verdicts being correct; B talks about them being just.
3. This one is too broad. We don’t care about “people” in general, just jurors. We also don’t care that they’re unlikely to admit that they were influenced; we only care whether they actually were influenced.
4. CORRECT. This matches our prephrase and says that lawyers’ obstructive efforts aren’t effective when jurors are presented with legitimate evidence.
5. Out of scope. We’re not talking about jury selection. The stimulus says obstructive behaviours always hinder trial outcomes, no matter the selection process.

Recap: The question begins with “Journalist: When judges do not maintain strict control over”. It is a Weaken question. Learn more about LSAT Weaken questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.