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Visible Impact: Compelling Charts and Graphs Can Make Opening Statements More Memorable
by Noelle C. Nelson
(Presented at the 19th Annual CAALA Las Vegas Convention)
Noelle C. Nelson is a Santa Monica-based trial consultant
who provides trial and jury strategy, witness preparation, and focus groups for
attorneys and law firms. She is the author of "Winning! Using Lawyers'
Courtroom Techniques to Get Your Way in Everyday Situations" (Prentice Hall,
1997), "Connecting With Your Client" (American Bar Association, 1996) and "A
Winning Case" (Prentice Hall, 1991).
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Although the debate is never-ending among lawyers over whether jurors make up
their minds about a case after opening statements or only after closing
arguments, one thing is certain: A powerful and persuasive opening statement
goes a long way toward influencing jurors.
Giving particular attention to the juror-worthiness of your opening statement is
therefore critical. Once you have determined the substantive issues you want to
cover, presenting those issues to achieve maximum juror impact is key to your
success.
Scientists tell us that after three days, only 10 percent of what is verbally
presented and 20 percent of what is visually presented is remembered. However,
when a verbal presentation is combined with a visual presentation, 65 percent
of the presentation is remembered. These statistics bring home the importance
of demonstrative evidence and visual aids to successful trial lawyering.
Given the tremendous importance of the opening statement in juror persuasion, it
is wise to incorporate visual aids at this early stage of the trial. Here are
ways visual aids can be designed and presented to support and give impact to
your opening statement.
One of the most commonly used visual aids in opening statements is the time
line, a chart that summarizes the key events as they occurred over time. Most
time lines are geared toward succinct presentation of information, appealing to
the logical mind of the jurors. These time lines consist of a column of dates
on the left-hand side of the chart, with the information corresponding to each
date given in condensed or “highlighted” format on the right-hand side of the
chart.
As valuable as this type of time line is, it fails to take into account the
emotions and subconscious minds of the jurors. These are appealed to with the
use of symbols – something we are familiar with but don’t necessarily think to
incorporate in visual aids. For example, stop signs are in red, a color that
subconsciously alerts us to danger or high risk. When a line is drawn
diagonally through something, we understand that line to mean “don’t,” as in
“don’t smoke here.” Yellow means caution and is used on signs to alert people
to go cautiously or handle materials carefully. These symbols and many more are
immediately understood by our subconscious mind and can be used to present
information for maximum juror impact.
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