Reaching Jurors on Different Levels

A successful lawyer is one who knows how to persuade jurors, that much is obvious. What is less obvious is that jurors are persuaded on several different levels. One level that is often ignored is the difference levels in how we each perceive information, our unique perceptual modes.

An individual’s perceptual mode determines the primary way that individual perceives events and situations: we see it, hear it or feel it. That is not to say that people who favor a visual mode, for example, only experience the world through their eyes. Rather, they first and predominantly experience the world in visual terms. Visually oriented people make use of the auditory and feeling modes, but only secondarily.

How does this apply to the courtroom?

Each of us tend to express and receive information in our preferred perceptual mode, to the relative exclusion of the other modes. Many men, for example, are visually oriented, and thus are focused on the visual. Women are frequently more kinesthetically (feeling) oriented, and relate to kinesthetic expression.

Figure out how you see the world: are you more likely to say “I see what you mean” “I can’t picture it” (visual), or “that sounds good to me” “Doesn’t ring a bell for me” (auditory), or “I understand how you feel” “I want to get a handle on this” (kinesthetic)?

Deliberately express yourself in all three modes during trial; make a conscious effort to communicate in those modes that are not your predominant one. In so doing, you will more effectively reach and therefore persuade all the jurors, not just those who resonate to your native mode.

Communicate Billing Procedure to Assure Client Cooperation

Some of your clients will have considerable experience with attorneys, for others, you may be the first attorney they’ve ever contacted. Your corporate clients probably have a good idea of how and for what you charge, your first-timers and private individuals won’t. Since one of the most common client complaints is what the client considers un-necessary or excessive charges, it’s best to have an explanation of your fees and various expenses early on, otherwise you will have a very unhappy client in the near future. And an unhappy client is an uncooperative client – the bane of most attorneys’ existence.

In particular, inform clients as to both the what and the why of your charges. For example, filing fees, fees to outside consultants, fees for contract research, paralegal fees, and whatever else you charge for along with why these fees are essential to the successful handing of the client’s case – all of these should be communicated to the client, preferably in writing as well as verbally, so that at the time of billing you don’t get a shocked, outraged phone call, text or email.

Again, an unhappy client is an uncooperative client. Clearly communicating your billing procedure is one of the quickest, easiest ways to facilitate client cooperation.

Conviction vs Slash-and-Burn

It is often tempting to rip into opposing counsel, or disparage his/her client in emotionally charged vitriolic words, yet such an approach rarely wins over jurors. Sure, you have the shock value of a momentary deer-in-the-headlights stunned witness or a knee-jerk angry riposte from opposing counsel, but in the long run, that’s not what convinces jurors.

Jury studies systematically show that jurors tend to be highly critical and disapproving of such tactics. One time during trial, no problem. More than that, jurors will turn on the offending attorney. Over-aggressiveness has repeatedly been pointed out in jury debriefings as an advocate’s most common flaw.

This is not to say you must turn into Mr./Ms. Meek, not at all. It simply means that you persuade jurors more with positive arguments, such as appealing to devotion to an ideal, or the well-being of the community at large, or the importance of justice. These can be expressed with great vigor and emotional commitment, as long as you are sincere in your delivery.

Conviction in the name of a righteous cause is what wins jurors over, not slash-and-burn verbal onslaughts.

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Read my latest article, "Managing the Angry Client 101" in the September issue of Plaintiff magazine. Click here.