Motive Matters to the Success of Your Case - Always

Whether or not you believe motive is important to your case, motive is everything to jurors. In the absence of your attributing motive, the jurors will do so, and the motive they assign may not be favorable to your client.

This is particularly true in business cases, where the human heart may not seem to play as large a part. For example, a case involving copyright infringement, fraud, or breach of contract, may lead the attorney to focus too narrowly on the legal issues. They forget to bring to light the bigger human picture, yet that is the picture the jurors will focus on: Why was the copyright issued in the first place? Who invented the whatever, what did it mean to them, to their business, their life? How did these other people come to be involved? What’s the story of their connection, their hopes and dreams when they entered the relationship? Why did it fall apart? Why, why, why is a question the jurors will ask over and over.

When you answer these more human questions for the jurors, your case – and your client – become a living, breathing matter of importance to the jurors. It appeals to their hearts and minds in a way that allows them to care. Jurors must care about your client, about your interpretation of the facts, if you are to prevail. Giving them motive goes a long way towards helping jurors care.

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 do you need to get the edge? What, given the usual state of affairs by the time a case gets to court where both sides believe their evidence is strong enough to prevail, can you do to give you the advantage over your opponent?

Explain why. Why does your interpretation of the facts make sense? Why should the jurors care that their verdict favor your client? Why should this matter to the jurors? How does it impact their lives (work, family, children, safety, etc.), preferably in an immediate and direct way?

Explain through your experts, your lay witnesses, and most importantly, your closing argument, and of course your opening to the degree allowed.

We invest in the personal, in that which strikes home. That's why stories have such impact, they touch the personal. So too with explanations - make your case matter, not just to your client, but to the jurors.