Use Visual “Bullets” to Bring Home Your Salient Points

You spend hours, if not days, honing your opening,  crafting your expert examination questions, drilling down your closing arguments.

As well you should, for there’s nothing like diligent preparation to insure solid trial work. However, as important as your preparation is, how the jurors are going to receive the result of all that intense prep is equally important.

What a recent study reveals (Begelo & Poremba, 2014), is that people forget most readily what they hear. Memory is far better for things that people see or touch. So it’s not only what has long been established - that people absorb communication better when it’s visual as well as auditory - but also that words are too easily forgotten.

And if there’s anything you need when those jurors go into the jury room, it’s for them to remember your salient points.

The temptation is to reproduce on PowerPoint or other visual media, lots of text, so that jurors both see and hear relevant testimony. That’s certainly useful, but you might also consider taking a page from Steve Jobs’ presentations. Regardless of what one may think about the man or his product, Jobs’ presentations are universally considered among the most compelling ever.

Jobs mastered the art of a single image capturing the essence of his point. Sometimes a single word, or a single number. These are the visual equivalent of the “bullet point,” but with far more effectiveness than the usual list of bullet points, for such images are easily and often forcefully, remembered.

Help your jurors take your salient points into the jury room - with visual “bullets.” 

The Question’s Not the Problem: The Answer May Be

How many times in your youth, were you told by a benevolent, or at the very least, good-hearted, coach or teacher, "There’s no such thing as a stupid question." You’ve probably said that very phrase to your children as well.

And yet, when jurors ask during deliberations to have something explained to them, or ask a question that clearly reveals their lack of understanding, lawyers will frequently roll their eyes and mutter about "the decline in average intelligence" or mumble about the impossibility of getting “bright jurors” on the panel.

Similarly, in focus groups, when it’s obvious the mock jurors have completely missed a lawyer’s point, the lawyer will often blame the jurors for their stupidity . . . which drives me absolutely berserk.

Jurors are people who are good at what they do! Whether that’s repairing cars, or managing a convenience store, or cleaning houses. And just like the show "Undercover Boss" reveals the inability of most bosses to accomplish the mundane tasks of their employees, I defy any attorney to walk in the shoes of any juror and accomplish their tasks in life, from bus driver to pediatric nurse, with the same level of expertise as said juror.

There are no stupid questions. There are simply different arenas and levels of experience in the world. Run your cases by focus groups whenever you can to ferret out what are the issues critical to your case that jurors are likely to misunderstand, or fail to comprehend.

Then do all that you can, with the aid of visuals whenever possible, to clarify matters for those who will be your "real" jurors.

There are no stupid questions. But there are some mightily confusing, obfuscating answers.

A Dynamite Persuasion Technique: “But You Are Free”

We live in the “land of the free, home of the brave.” As a people, we cherish freedom, but it’s something lawyers do not always factor in to voir dire and closing arguments.

And yet, 42 psychological studies on 22,000 people has shown that the single most powerful persuasion technique is to give people the freedom to choose. In other words, when you ask someone to do something, make sure to add to your request, “but you are free” to do otherwise.

The exact words don’t matter, for example, the phrase “But obviously do not feel obliged” worked as well as “but you are free.” What’s important is that people resist being forced to a singular choice. When you give them the option to choose, people are more amenable to being persuaded by you.

The used-car salesman who says “But of course, you’re free to compare the price with other dealers” is more likely to make the sale than the salesman who hammers a “this deal is the best deal you’ll ever get” approach.

However you phrase it, whenever possible, give jurors a “but you are free” option: free to choose as their conscience dictates, free to come to some other conclusion--all the while putting your choice forward, leading them to it rather than corralling them into it.
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An article by Dr. Noelle Nelson, “Don’t Blame the Jurors,” was published in the November 2013 issue of California Lawyer. Here’s the link: Don't Blame the Jurors.