I recently was hired by a temp service to do what they called "consumer research". when i arrived at the job, it was actually a fake trial of an actual lawsuit, and i was to take part in one of three jury's. We were all made to sign confidentiality statements, and we're told that all parties involved in a local class action lawsuit were involved in the "fake trial". So over the next two days, we watched as the so called plaintiffs, and defense both made their cases, showing us video taped testimony of all the witnesses and experts involved with the case, then the juries were made to deliberate and make their rulings. Later, after doing some research, i found out that all the lawyers in the case that we're supposedly representing the different sides, we're actually part of the same law firm, as were the organizers, who we're supposedly part of an independent party. My question is, is this legal?
Thanks for any input you can give me on this.

Yep - happens all the time and perfectly legal since it doesn't impact the actual trial or bias actual jurors. It's a good way for the attorneys to practice their arguements and get insight about what the other side might do. They probably also had clinical psychologists observing to provide additional insight about how certain portions of the trial were impacting the emotional of the jury, etc.

__________________
While pointers can be helpful, ultimately the number one lesson in any legal action is: don't take legal advice from books, family, friends, co-workers, police officers, grocery clerks, web sites, or people on legal message boards. The only person who can give YOU legal advice is YOUR attorney.

http://www.aardvarc.org

I agree with what aardvark posted. That is probably why they had you sign a confidentiality agreement. Hopefully it was at least interesting!