People aren’t very good at detecting liars. Studies
show that people’s hit rate for detecting lies (54%) is slightly above pure
chance (50%), which is good news for the liars, but bad news for you in the
courtroom.
Why? Because people tend to pay attention to certain
cues to determine if someone is lying, but these cues may mean something
entirely different.
Take the “vocal immediacy” cue, for example. Vocal immediacy
is the directness with which someone responds to a question. The more
roundabout or vague the response, the more likely jurors will figure your
witness is lying. However, your witness may simply be thinking out loud, which
sounds roundabout. Or your witness may not know what to say, and rather than
answer “I don’t know,” or “I don’t understand the question” may resort to a
vague mulling which again, looks like lying.
Another cue is “uncooperativeness.” People often assume that
a person being uncooperative is hiding something, being dishonest. Yet often an
uncooperative witness is one who argues with opposing counsel rather than
answer the question asked, or attempts to force his or her views of the facts
into every response, rather than let their own attorney do the litigating.
Your best witness—among other things—responds directly to
the question asked, and leaves the lawyering up to the lawyer.
The best tool I know to help your witnesses get up to
jury-worthy credibility is to use video-taped role-play in preparing them to
testify. You can’t afford to let your witnesses get away with behaviors that could
be mistaken by the jurors as those of a liar.
--------------------
A WINNING CASE Dr. Noelle Nelson recently
consulted on:
*Congratulations
to A. Barry Cappello and Lawrence J. Conlan
(co-counsel) of Cappello & Noël (Santa Barbara) for their successful
$7.7 million jury verdict in United Studios of Self Defense (USSD) v.
Z-Ultimate Self Defense Studios, et al. The
jury decided unanimously in favor of USSD on almost every cause of action
against Z-Ultimate companies and its owners (former USSD executives). The
charges included breach of fiduciary duty, constructive fraud, misappropriation
of trade secrets and confidential information, Penal Code 502 (destroying
computer records), trademark infringement and civil conspiracy. In addition,
the jury found against the owners of Z-Ultimate companies for malice and fraud.
