The lawyer world vs. the jury world: Different countries and different languages 
By:
Richard Gabriel
Published: December 14, 2012
Tags: jury, jury selection
Lawyers usually hate jury selection. Not only does voir dire provide limited time and information to identify jurors who will decide the fate of their clients, but it directly confronts attorneys with a problem they have in communicating complex cases to today’s demanding and skeptical juror: that jurors and attorneys think and communicate in completely different ways.
Trial lessons: Juries see more than just the evidence
By:
Sylvia Hsieh
Published: August 31, 2012
Tags: jury, Trial Strategy
Don’t wear a pinky ring. Don’t wear monogrammed shirts. Don’t drive your fancy sports car to the courthouse.
These are some of the rules lawyers follow if they don’t want to alienate jurors on Day 1.
Why? Because juries are taking note of everything that happens at trial, not just the evidence.
Trial lawyers cater to jurors’ demands for visual evidence
By:
Sylvia Hsieh
Published: June 8, 2012
Tags: evidence, jury
As jurors demand slicker, speedier, sound bite-like presentation of trial evidence, lawyers are hiring visual artists, computer graphic designers and illustrators to transform piles of documents into light, sound and images.
Trial strategy: Should you let jurors handle the evidence?
By:
Correy Stephenson
Published: April 13, 2012
Tags: evidence, jury
A recent study by the University of Notre Dame suggests that humans learn and retain information differently if their sense of touch is engaged.
Trial consultant Douglas Keene said this means that the value of touching a piece of evidence cannot be overstated.
Redefining expert witness credibility for juries
By:
Richard Gabriel
Published: April 9, 2012
Tags: expert witness, expert witnesses, jury
Juries routinely dismiss expert testimony due to credibility problems, incomprehensibility, or simply because it is cancelled out by another expert’s testimony.
This leads to a number of important questions for the attorney and the expert in presenting testimony at trial. What exactly is credibility? Is an expert an advocate? How objective is an expert supposed to be?
Verdict trends: What’s fueling the rise in jury awards?
By:
Sylvia Hsieh
Published: January 17, 2012
Tags: jury
The past year saw some of the highest Top Ten Jury Verdicts in recent years, exceeding the previous two years. Are jury verdicts trending higher? How is the prolonged economic downturn affecting juror attitudes, and has any of the public frustration displayed in anti-corporate protests like the Occupy Wall St. movement seeped into jury deliberations?
We talked to several experts who spend a lot of time in the courtroom to get their opinions about what juries are responding to. Here are three views of jury trends from a plaintiffs’ personal injury attorney, an employment defense lawyer and a senior jury consultant.
Taking storytelling to a new level in the courtroom
By:
Sylvia Hsieh
Published: November 16, 2011
Tags: jury, story, voir dire
Most lawyers with any natural storytelling ability had it beaten out of them in law school.
But all hope is not lost. In his new book, ‘Twelve Heroes, One Voice,’ trial lawyer Carl Bettinger draws from a variety of stories, from ‘The Odyssey’ to ‘The Matrix’, to show how a jury trial mimics the story arc of every hero-centric tale – with the happy ending being what Bettinger calls a “verdict with a capital V.”
Speaking with jurors post-trial can yield invaluable lessons
By:
Correy Stephenson
Published: October 18, 2011
Tags: jurors, jury, witnesses
After spending the length of a trial staring at a group of strangers who hold the fate of a client in their hands, the last thing lawyers may want to do is sit down and chat with the jury.
But getting jurors’ take on the trial – from the persuasiveness of a closing argument to the credence of testimony – can be invaluable.
Two trials, two verdicts in the Casey Anthony case
By:
Richard Gabriel
Published: July 29, 2011
Tags: Casey Anthony, jury
When Casey Anthony was unanimously acquitted earlier this month, a USA Today/Gallup poll showed that nearly two out of three Americans believed she was guilty of murder. How could the court of public opinion differ so drastically from the jury in an Orlando courtroom?
Telling stories using ‘micro-scripts’
Published: April 15, 2011
Tags: book review, client, jury
Whether pitching services to a potential client or trying to sway a jury, communication is essential for lawyers.
