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Effective Communication in the Courtroom (Continued)
by Donna Siers & Rick Kraemer
TIME BIAS
It is important to determine when, in time, to start telling the plaintiff's
story. The sequence of events must emphasize the defendant's bad choices and
not get caught up in telling too much or becoming too vague.
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Sometimes,
telling an entire history can help a jury determine a pattern of behavior that
can then be applied to the present case. In the first exhibit, the decedent had
put every property easement and use permit in writing for over six decades. The
jury decided that the neighbor had no special rights to use the property as
claimed, since it had not been put in writing.
In a
different case, however, emphasizing the history of the apartment building
where the plaintiff lived was less effective. The responsibility of the owners
and management became diluted in this timeline about how the plaintiff suffered
terrible burns.
A new
timeline, covering only the events on the day of the accident, helped jurors
determine that the inaction of the management was a major factor in the
plaintiff's injuries.
click on any
image to enlarge
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FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION
Jurors focus on blaming someone. If the focus is on the plaintiff's actions and
the jurors think "If only the plaintiff had...;" the result is to blame the
plaintiff and thus absolve the defendant. By emphasizing the defendant's
inappropriate actions, the jurors start to think what should have/could have
been done and the focus winds up on the defendants.
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By stacking
up the acts of bad faith on the part of an insurance company, jurors for this
case determined that the defendant was ultimately responsible for malpractice
against the plaintiff. While the jurors deliberated on punitive damages, the
parties settled for $2.1 million.
click on any
image to enlarge
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Jurors ask themselves, "Who was ultimately responsible for what happened to the
plaintiff?" Graphically illustrating who, what, when, where and how shows the
jury who made the decision(s) which ultimately caused the plaintiff's injury,
as well as who had the power to do the right thing, correct the problem, and/or
prevent the plaintiff's injury.
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Using
internal documents and memos, the lawyers showed that GM knew about problems
with their 1979 Malibu and chose not to make changes in the product that could
have prevented the gas tank explosion that seriously injured the plaintiff. The
jury's verdict: $4.9 billion.
click on any image to enlarge
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SUMMARY
Knowing the facts and details of your case is just the beginning. Creating an
effective court room presentation includes deciding on which details to get the
jury focused, utilizing jurors' pre-trial and in-trial biases to your benefit,
and designing graphics that clearly show your story so that the jurors all
reach the same conclusion.
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