Thirty percent of all the mentions of emojis in court decisions in the past 15 years occurred in 2018. Just emerging as a visual dynamic in trials is the appearance of emojis in the courtroom. Reading your slides out loud, for example, is the easiest way to lose your audience and lose your case. PowerPoint is a useful tool, but it should be used to support the story you are telling, not to tell the story.
#Will telling my story publicly help my lawsuit trial
Many are worthwhile, but trial lawyers shouldn’t get too caught up in the technology. Over the years, more sophisticated programs and techniques have sprung up to help trial lawyers tell their stories. That’s true regardless of the subject matter of the case.
A trial needs to feel as if it is part of a well-scripted show, not a set of bullet points or undigested notes. In addition, especially in this decade as the online world has become ubiquitous and graphics are everywhere, jurors expect to see a carefully designed graphic presentation.
Charts and diagrams improve people’s comprehension of quantitative information, and animation adds to people’s understanding of any dynamic process. Science has shown that visual aids in courtroom presentations enhance jurors’ attention and help them recall key events in the narrative. Most of their lives, they have learned things by hearing lectures and arguments and reading cases. Most lawyers, in contrast, are not visual learners. A majority of human beings do not assimilate information primarily from what they hear. This may not be fair or right, but it is another reality that science has proved.įinally, it is crucial to make sure your story is supported by visuals. The best story may not save a trial lawyer who is unattractive, poorly dressed or monotonous in his or her presentation. In addition, charisma and likability count. After all, the underlying events of every trial were actions taken by human beings who had human motivations. If only you look for them, every trial has those elements. Some lawyers may object that it would be difficult or impossible to turn a patent dispute or a contract claim into a dramatic tale or to make corporate executives into relatable characters. Until finally, we ended up here in the courtroom, and I am here to tell you the story of what really happened.Īnd in telling his or her story, a trial lawyer should also make sure that the story includes characters the jury can care about and that it contains a significant element of drama. Because of that, she unfortunately filed this lawsuit against the company. Because of that, she concluded, understandably but incorrectly, that she was a victim of unlawful discrimination. One day, she received a negative performance rating. Here’s how the outline works, omitting the “once upon a time”: There was a company, my client. But let’s say you’re representing a defendant in an employment law case.
Obviously, every trial will have its own wrinkles. That’s a pretty good outline for a compelling and memorable movie-or for a compelling opening statement in nearly every kind of case. Pixar has developed a formula for grabbing people’s attention and holding it. So how do you tell a better story than your opponent? Think about Pixar, the only motion picture studio that consistently tells stories that make people care deeply about an animated character like a robot, a fish, or a kids’ toy. In the 21 st century, storytelling is still the best way to present information to an audience, including a jury. Researchers believe that storytelling began with early humans hearing their tribal elders recount stories at the campfire. The research tells us, in fact, that human beings automatically make stories out of virtually all life events to gain a sense of control, even if it proves to be a false sense. A host of psychological studies have concluded that our brains are hard wired to tell stories, to listen to stories, and to remember stories. This statement is based on solid science. Each side has a narrative it wants to tell, and the winner is almost always going to be the side whose story is more convincing to the jury or judge. Whether $10,000 or $1 billion is at stake, any trial is no more and no less than a battle of competing stories.
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