Don’t Let the Curse of Knowledge Nuke You at Trial!

 

Jurors will not find for what they don’t understand. Simple, right? Yet laying your case out in such a way that jurors readily understand its ins and outs can be more challenging than it at first appears.

You see, you may be so deeply steeped in your case, the issues of your case, the whys and wherefores of your case, that you can’t imagine what it is like not to know about them. You’ve fallen victim to the curse of your own knowledge.

Certainly, you are well aware that the jurors are uninformed as to the legal aspects of the case, but too often, you don’t tune in to how necessary it is to explain everything about your case in a way your jurors can readily and easily understand. Including whatever testimony your experts proffer.

This doesn’t mean giving excessive detail. It doesn’t mean to “talk down” to jurors, either. Jurors are no different from the folks you interact with every day, from the barista to your mechanic to your support staff. They just have different areas of expertise - in which they are far better informed than you, BTW.

Build your jurors’ confidence in their ability to come to a wise and appropriate verdict by streamlining your arguments and presenting your key evidence with stunning clarity. Wherever you can, use visuals to further clarify and explain.

If at all possible, run a focus group pre-trial of individuals similar to your jury pool. They will tell you, with unerring accuracy, exactly what persons not afflicted with the curse of your particular knowledge will understand or fail to understand.

Now you are much better prepared to win at trial!

Put “Truthiness” To Work For You At Trial

 

The value of visuals in trial work is well established, in that images emphasize and clarify testimony or evidence. However, research shows that visuals have impact in yet another way, which can be put to powerful use in the courtroom. 

Scientists in New Zealand and Canada examined what satirist Stephen Colbert calls “truthiness” – the feeling that something is true. What they discovered is that when a statement, whether true or not, is accompanied by a simply decorative photograph [i.e., one that does not reveal the validity of the claim], it is more likely to be perceived as true. People simply “feel” that the statement is more likely to be true, by virtue of the accompanying visual.

So the statement “The liquid metal inside a thermometer is magnesium” accompanied by a picture of a thermometer (which revealed nothing about the metal inside), was believed to be true far more often than the same statement not accompanied by a decorative photograph.

What does this mean for you? That even when you don’t have a visual or graphic that directly elucidates testimony/evidence you are confident is credible, it’s worth attaching a visual that in some way relates to the testimony/evidence. You thus have greater chances of engaging jurors’ feeling that the testimony is truthful, as you know it to be.

Once again, the mighty power of visuals is revealed!