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It’s fun to mock Johnnie Cochran’s “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” but it was a brilliant way of organizing all of the defense arguments into a single theme.Ĥ. When you do that, you make the fact-finder smarter by providing a framework and a theme for finding in your client's favor. That’s not you “dumbing it down” it’s you doing the most important thing: making sure nothing gets lost in the message. Say it so it sticks. I have a friend from Iowa who says “say it so everyone can understand it at the state fair.” Use simple words. ![]() ![]() Doing so does not make you look weak. If you do it the right way, it shows the jury the witness had nothing important to say.ģ. If the witness doesn’t hurt you, don’t ask many - or any- questions. State your case in one sentence. If you can’t, you’re not ready to try your case. “This is a case about a husband who is lying about his income because he doesn’t want to pay alimony.” “This is a case about a company who broke a contract because it found a better deal.” “This is a case about a doctor who didn’t pay attention and left a surgical sponge inside the patient.” Every time there is an objection on relevance grounds, restate your one-sentence theme and then explain in another sentence how the testimony fits in: “Your Honor, this is a case about a husband who is lying about his income. The fact that he knew he had a duty to report it accurately goes directly to that issue.”Ģ. #FLOWSTATE WHOS TRYING TO GET LOST IN THE SAUCE GENRE TRIAL#Here are eight things you can start doing today to make your trial performance more crisp, focused, and persuasive:ġ. The goal is to be UNDERSTOOD. One of the keys to being understood is to distill your message as succinctly as possible. Lawyers and writers have a name for this: Kill your darlings. Yes, your darlings. Those questions you think are eloquent but probably are just gilding the lily. Cut out all of the fluff. It will make your case and your presentation more crisp, muscular, and powerful. Why? Because doing LESS goes against the grain. It makes a trial lawyer with a bias for action feel like he or she is not advocating vigorously for the client. Remember: You and your clients have been living with the case for months or even years. The judge or the jury doesn’t know all of the nuances and, therefore, can’t always appreciate those points you thought you brought home so deftly on cross-examination but which ended up falling on deaf ears.Īsk a lawyer to shorten a brief, or to reduce the number of questions in a direct or cross examination, and it’s like asking them to give up their first-born. Why? Because, as advocates, the lawyers did not make the case simple and easy to understand for the court. #FLOWSTATE WHOS TRYING TO GET LOST IN THE SAUCE GENRE FULL#The same is true when trying hearings and trials before a judge. I’ve watched judges take three, four, or five legal pads full of notes during a hearing or trial. When the judge gets around to writing the opinion, sometimes months later, and tries to make heads or tails of the notes, it can be excruciating – and so much of what you thought was brilliant advocacy gets lost in the sauce. That’s what happens when lawyers over-try their cases. When they try to make every point, try to wring every last fact out of every witness, and try to overwhelm the jury or the judge with arguments and facts, they end up doing exactly what they don’t want to do: Confuse – and lose – the jury. It’s because you didn’t distill your case into a simple sentence or two to keep the jury focused. It’s because you let your case run like a wild elephant and the jury or judge has glommed onto what they thought was interesting or entertaining. It’s because you asked too many questions about something that doesn’t matter. If the jury’s focused on that, it’s because you didn’t focus them on what’s really important. How could they possibly be thinking that?Įvery year, I tell them the same thing: I have seen the enemy, and it’s YOU. Why are the jurors focused on THAT? It’s got nothing to do with the case! Every year, I serve as the judge of a mock trial competition for young lawyers. It’s a wonderful event. The best part is they bring in people from the neighborhood to serve as jurors. The lawyers get to watch the jurors deliberate through closed-circuit television.Įvery year, the lawyers watch the deliberations and cringe like they’re watching a horror film. ![]()
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