Tuesday, October 14, 2014
The Challenge of Celebrity Clients - New CAALA Article
The October issue of CAALA's The Advocate contains an article I authored called "The Challenge of Celebrity Clients." Here's the link: http://bit.ly/1D9ND7c.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
The Eyes Have It: Does Your Witness Know How to Look at Jurors?
Telling your witness to look at the jurors during their
testimony without teaching them how to do so can be fatal to your case.
A scared, anxious witness may only dare a quick terrified glance
mid-sentence at the jurors, which confirms in the jurors’ minds that yup, this
witness is surely hiding something. So much for the witness’s credibility.
Or a witness may attempt to “duke it out” during cross by
glaring at the jurors during his or her response, rather than focusing on
opposing counsel. This does not benefit your case.
Help your witness look at the jury in a way that enhances
their credibility even as it satisfies jurors’ need to see the witness’s eyes
to determine veracity. Which as many of
us will remember, is why our mothers would say; “Look me in the eyes when
you’re talking to me!”
During direct, suggest that your witness, when they have a
response of a couple of sentences or more, to begin their answer by looking at
you, to then turn out to the jurors and look at different jurors during the
bulk of their response, to conclude their response by turning back to you
during the last few words. If the witness can angle their body very slightly
towards the jury box, then turning out towards the jurors is smoother. All this
sounds easy, and certainly becomes easy, but only with practice.
I have found videorecorded role-play to be the most
effective way to help witnesses get comfortable with turning out to the jurors.
It’s best to do during direct, because during cross, the witness will rarely be
given an opportunity to respond with more than a few words, and focusing on
opposing counsel is their primary responsibility at that point.
“Look at the jurors,” yes, is a critical and essential
instruction, but how it is done can make all the difference to your case.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
"You Need a Timeline!"
Timelines are essential to just about any case. I’ve been
teased by various attorneys I’ve worked with that I always recommend a
timeline, and indeed it’s true.
But there is method to my repeated "You need a timeline!"
Movement of events across time is how jurors anchor testimony in their minds.
It’s how they create “story” for themselves.
And story is the single most compelling way to get facts and
information across to the jurors in a coherent, persuasive manner.
The reason a timeline works so well, is it answers the
fundamental question of story-telling: “And then what happened?” It ties
together apparently disparate testimony or pieces of evidence. It grounds any
narrative in logic, by assigning order to the events.
Timelines need to be designed around a horizontal axis
representing time, with “flags” or “boxes” pegged at the appropriate moments in
time. Timelines don’t need to be fancy, but different entities should have
different colored “flags,” for example, to differentiate them easily. Beyond
that, a graphics designer can help give a timeline more visual impact.
The temptation is often to put too much information on a
timeline: it’s a tool meant to emphasize and support, not reiterate all the
testimony. Several uncluttered, easy-to-read timelines are better than a single
one crowded with too much for the eye to readily grasp.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
It Takes A Village: Yet Another Focus Group Advantage
I consulted on a case recently where one of the possible
witnesses was an individual in a highly respected line of work. This person had
some 30-odd years ago been involved in criminal activity, but in the years
since had made a wonderful turn-around, and was a veritable pillar of the
community, loved and respected.
The attorneys who had interacted with the witness said she
was credible, quite charming, and would no doubt make an excellent witness.
With such a brilliant present, would the past matter? The
attorneys and I weren’t sure, and figured the best way to find out would be to
present the witness to a focus group. Not live, that’s rarely possible, but in
a video clip.
Imagine our surprise when what struck the focus group
members wasn’t the long-ago criminal activity, but the witness’s “smarmy-ness.”
They didn’t find the witness charming, they thought she was smirking. The focus
group members stated the witness wasn’t taking the present matter seriously,
that her attitude was entirely too cavalier. They did not find her credible at
all.
With that, since the witness’s appearance at trial was not
obligatory, it was quickly decided NOT to have the witness take the stand. We
would never have realized the impact of this particular individual had it not
been for the valuable input of the focus group members.
Once again, a focus group saved the day.
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