Your opening may read brilliantly on paper, but here’s the
thing: the jurors won’t be reading your opening, they’ll be listening to it. Listening
involves different pathways in our brains. What may make a great deal of sense
when read, can come across as just so much nonsense when heard.
The best example I know of is the classic “Eats, shoots and
leaves.” A comma is all that distinguishes a murderer from a friendly Koala
bear (“Eats shoots and leaves”)! Yet when spoken, the listener has little way
of knowing which is which, unless of course, they are attending to the context.
If you want to make sure your opening will be heard as you
want to be, read it out loud.
Step one is to read your opening out loud to yourself, because I
guarantee you will pick up all sorts of issues with your written version that
need to be addressed. You may even wish to record yourself speaking your
opening, since it can be difficult to spot problems at the same time as you are
speaking. Things to watch out for, for example; run-on sentences. Or the use of
“they” “he” “she” or “it” without a referencing noun close enough to the
pronoun. Or sentences that have so many conditional clauses, the meaning is
lost long before the end of the sentence.
Step two is to read it out loud to a friend or family member
who is NOT intimately acquainted with the material, and from whom you are
willing to hear constructive criticism. In addition to whatever comments your
friend makes, ask: “Is there enough emotion in this to grab your attention? Is
my language clear enough so you never went “huh?” as you listened? Are my
sentences short enough? Am I using repetition in a way that helps or hurts?
Does the way my opening unfolded appeal to your common sense, or is it too
complex?” and so on.
Do the same with your closing argument. Any actor worth
his/her salt always rehearses out loud. A courtroom is, in many ways, a
theatre.
The small amount of extra effort required to speak your
words out loud may make all the difference between convincing the jurors of
your case, or watching their eyes glaze over as your case peters out.
