Tell a Story That The Jury Can Get
From the Desk of Leonard A. Martinez ESQ., practicing attorney with over 24 years of experience.
For today’s tips, the notion “learn from and appeal to your peers” is a central theme. Notably when in the courtroom there are conversations you can manage that would help influence your case. This in particular being the jury, and in almost every juror trial I try and talk with them.
Although the court allows the jury to decide if they want to talk to the attorney after they render their decisions, I do my best to engage with them respectively to get their take and opinion as to what they liked and did not like. The most consistent details jurors have expressed is whether they were interested in our theory and whether they believed our side of the story.
My cases that have resulted in the most successful decisions, the jury had expressed to me afterwards that they bought into the story that I had told. Many attorney’s approach a juror trial with legal terminology, a good portion doesn’t fully understand. Sometimes the attorneys become boring with their elaborated sentences, and when this happens it could be seen as talking down to the jury; which is a huge mistake.
To fix this situation before it occurs, develop an interesting and convincing story, one that is more relatable than not. While developing a story from the beginning of the case at voire dire and then touching upon it a little in your opening, this enables the jury to get a better grasp of what you are presenting to them. Continue this by shaping evidence around the story and then capping it off with your closing, by then the final chapter of the story as I explain it, can result in a successful trial.
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