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How to Effectively Communicate to the Jury

1. Jurors intake everything that happens in and around the courtroom as evidence. This means that everything you do (or don’t do) and everything you say (or don’t say) is considered by the jury in reaching its final decision. Jurors usually do not comprehend the jury instructions, tend not to distinguish among expert or fact witnesses, do not ignore the expensive jewelry that a lawyer is wearing, and speculate as to the implication behind any objections.

2. Jurors will bring their personal experiences and biases into evaluating and deciding a case, even if they can not relate to the information presented to them. Jurors will interpret an extremely complex or technical commercial contract or patent case in light of their own experiences with simple contracts and inventions or authorships. Therefore, you should make sure to match the information presented with the juror’s background and value beliefs, which you learned while conducting voir dire, to make the connection in their minds.

3. Jurors will tend to disregard 90% of the information told to them in trial, and focus instead on the one or two items that stick out in their memory. Attorneys have been sifting through the 50 banker boxes of information for months, sometimes even years, before trial, but jurors get only a week or two to digest all of the information. Unfortunately, humans are not computers, and human nature being what it is, jurors have selective memory, and will choose to remember what information or evidence coincides or reaffirms their own value beliefs or biases. This is why demonstrative exhibits and theme development is so important.

4. Studies have shown that most cases are won or lost by the time opening statement is over. It is important to follow certain rules of communication, especially in opening, such as speaking in present tense, speaking about your opponent before telling about your own case, using words that invoke the senses and paint pictures, using analogies, rhetorical questions, reframing, metaphors, cues for retrieval, simple language, and commonly shared experiences.

5. A juror has an average attention span of approximately 5 minutes before the boredom starts to set in and the mind starts to wander. Condense the information and deliver it quickly, tell a memorable story, and incorporate your theme so that you can go back to it throughout trial as an anchor. Make sure to include all of the jurors, and make eye contact.

6. There is a theory that suggests that jurors will focus on whatever topic is discussed first. Some jurors tend to blame the victim in a case, so the attorney should inoculate the jury by first discussing the defense during opening. Jurors tend to filter out any information that does not coincide with their beliefs or expectations. Some jurors will actually insist that they do not remember any testimony or evidence being presented which would discourage their interpretation or viewpoints of events.

7. There are many psychological theories that can be implemented when trying to communicate effectively to a juror or be persuasive on some issue. For example, there is the locus of control theory which postulates that those with an internal locus of control will tend to blame the victim and hold the victim accountable or responsible for whatever happened to him/her. Alternatively, those with an external locus of control put a significant amount of faith in “luck” and outside forces. Knowing this about your jurors, which can be gleaned during voir dire, you can better structure your opening and closing arguments.

8. Jurors are told to ignore social media. They won’t.  You want to find out what social media they follow and where they post. Yes, they must be counseled not to research on their own via social media. or follow any of the people, companies, issues; expect that many will anyhow.