Legal Research

"Communication in the Courtroom From Body Language to Computer Simulation"

 Posted by Mark Zamora: "A great article from Michael Maggiano. Here's an excerpt - Michael is happy to send you the rest as long as 1)You are a Plaintiff's lawyer; and 2)You don't represent insurance companies. His email is listed below:

It was a warm mid-spring afternoon, some 15 years ago. I had just finished a personal injury trial and I was finally feeling the effects of the two-week trial. As I slowly packed up my message and story boards, medical charts and anatomical models, a well-known defense attorney and friend came up to me and asked me to do him a favor. He told me that he was just assigned to this courtroom to commence a personal injury case in which he was defending. He had observed my use of the storyboards, charts and models and complemented me on them. He then told me that he was here on a significant case and was surprised that his adversary had not considered using any visual aids. He asked if I would, as soon as possible, remove my gear so as not to give his adversary any thoughts on the subject. I thought at first he was joking but upon a second look at his expression, I knew he was dead serious. He then remarked to me that he is ever surprised on how few Plaintiff attorneys utilize communication tools to tell the story of their case to jurors in ways that make sense to them.

We trial lawyers prepare like crazy looking for the best experts, researching and reading all the relevant literature, rules, codes, standards, guides and regulations. We comb the universe of knowledge as we arm ourselves like warriors as we enter the arena. We fall in love with our new found skills, knowledge and command of the scientific, technical and medical jargon. By the time we enter the court room we suffer The Curse of Knowledge. We execute incredibly brilliant direct examinations of our experts and cross examination of the opposing hired witnesses. But then we lose the case. What happened? Didn't they hear us? Sadly, they may have heard you but did not understand the message. The only persons who understood us were the lawyers, experts and perhaps the judge. We traveled through the case at Mach 2, high above the courtroom and beyond the comprehension of those who really matter - our jury...

Q. WHAT IS IT THAT JURORS WANT TO KNOW.

For the rest of this article, contact: mmaggiano@maggianolaw.com."

The full text of this post is available at the source site listed below

Source: Trial Lawyer Resource Center, 11 September 2009

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on September 28, 2009 (boomark / email).