Create a Trustworthy First Impression

 

Personal experience tells us how powerful first impressions are. Indeed, research reinforces our innate understanding of first impressions. The study suggests it takes just 20 seconds to detect whether a stranger is genetically inclined to being trustworthy, kind or compassionate. That’s less than a minute for you, or your witnesses, to establish a credible first impression with the jurors, one which, once established, will be very difficult to change or alter in any way.

What was it about the strangers that led the study subjects to figure out whether or not the stranger was trustworthy? Very simply, the “trusted” strangers displayed more trustworthy behaviors – more head nods, more eye contact, more smiling, more open body posture.

All of these behaviors are easily accessible to any of us. For that matter, when you’re in a relaxed, comfortable situation with friends or family, you’re likely to display these very behaviors without thinking about it.

Allow yourself to present yourself to the jurors more as who you are with friends – trusting and therefore trustworthy, and encourage your witnesses to do the same. The only caveat is that smiles must be appropriate to the situation, and when in trial, the moments when it is appropriate to smile are limited.

The True Value of Computer/AI Animation In Court

 

Most cases that don’t settle end up in trial because there are grey areas in the case--situations or testimony that can be interpreted in different ways. Computer/AI animation in court is often thought of as an effective, albeit expensive, way to show events. Research tells us, however, that there is a much more compelling reason to use computer/AI animation.

Computer/AI animation makes your interpretation of the event or situation more concrete to jurors. There is always flux and indeterminate issues within any accident or event reconstruction, which the opposing experts will argue at length. But once the jurors see and hear for themselves your version of said reconstruction, they are far more inclined to believe it. Computer/AI animation is an easy, immediately understandable way to present your belief of “what happened” in a way that makes it real.

That being said, the facts must be solidly incorporated into the animation. Jurors will pick out the slightest incongruence between the known facts (skid marks, length of surgical incision) and the animation. If they do, the persuasiveness of your animation will be destroyed.