Answer a Primordial Question for the Jurors: Who?
The names, acronyms and abbreviations so familiar to you are not to the jurors. You may think that saying, for example, “Acme Building Supply, which we’ll now call ABS for convenience,” is enough to warrant saying “ABS” through the rest of your trial. But “ABS” has no guts to it, has no uniqueness, no personality. […]
Explain “Why” to Make Your Case Matter to the Jurors
In a courtroom, it isn’t necessarily the attorney with the best facts who wins, but the attorney who best explains the relevance of those facts both to the case and to the jurors. Certainly, you need solid evidence, but here we’re talking about what you need to do to get the edge. What, given the […]
A Mind-Boggling Social Experiment Proves the Importance of First Impressions
If you ever wondered just how important the jurors’ first impressions of your client and witnesses are, here’s a mind-boggling social experiment, posted on Facebook. It shows people walking right past well-known and loved family members, not recognizing a single one of them, when the family members were dressed as homeless individuals, sitting as the […]
Don’t Undermine The Value of Your Focus Group
Too often, lawyers ask focus group jurors to deliberate and discuss only the verdict questions. This is a woefully inadequate use of the focus group.
Your Client, Expert and Witness E-Impressions Matter! Manage Them Well
What is written has more weight than what is said. Always. That is why, when something is important, we write it down. That is why, in any courtroom, jurors will believe documents over witness testimony. Unfortunately, clients often forget this, if they even ever stopped to think about it in the first place. And the […]
Watch Those Jurors: Body Language Outdoes the Spoken Word
The courtroom setting is unfamiliar to most prospective jurors as they sit with a group of strangers and are grilled by counsel during voir dire. In addition, potential jurors may respond differently depending on whether they want to be off or on a particular jury. Therefore, their responses may not entirely reflect that person’s “truth.” […]
Help Your Witness Deliver Effective Testimony with Full Sentences
Rare is the witness who isn’t anxious, worried, scared–even terrified–during deposition or cross-examination. Often this leads to a rapid pace of speech. Not only that, but witnesses tend to believe that if they just blurt out their response, they’ll get this dreadful experience over with sooner. Speaking Too Quickly. Now, there’s nothing wrong with speaking […]
Classic Juror Misunderstandings
The brilliant cartoonist, Wiley Miller (“Non Sequitur”), captured the misunderstandings between men and women as few others have. For example, the wife says: “Let’s go shopping.” The husband hears: “Let’s go drain the life force from your body.” The husband says: “Honey, are you almost ready yet?” The wife hears: “Life as we know it […]
Be Good to Your Jurors: Connect the Dots!
Too often, in jury debriefings and in focus groups, jurors complain that the attorneys do not connect their points or evidence to the specifics of the complaint. Furthermore, attorneys rarely fully explain the jury instructions to the jury, tying in those instructions to the attorney’s interpretation of the case. In a classic case, namely the […]
The Eyes Have It: Does Your Witness Know How to Look at Jurors?
Telling your witness to look at the jurors during their testimony without teaching them how to do so can be fatal to your case. A scared, anxious witness may only dare a quick terrified glance mid-sentence at the jurors, which confirms in the jurors’ minds that yes, this witness is surely hiding something. So much […]