Jury Appeal

Back in our cave dwelling days, our nervous system developed three strategies to cope with extreme stress. To this day research has shown that we still have the same three basic reactions to acute stress. When your witness is on the stand being interrogated by the opposition, they are under this same stress, so they are likely to have the fight, flight or freeze reaction. That is why it is essential to prepare witnesses to deal with the stress of testifying, an alien behavior for most. But what can you really do to help the uninitiated deal with the inevitable stress reactions? Practice? Practice can be helpful, but is that enough?

The US Military found out it wasn’t. Research indicated a majority of soldiers failed to fire their weapons in battle during WWII despite extensive practice on the firing range. Other evidence seemed to point out the same issues in the Civil War and WWI. So the military went about solving their battle stress issue by changing the WAY they practice firing their weapons. Out went the old bullseye targets, replaced by more human-like targets which eventually morphed into full body experiences using computer simulated battles. Soldiers had traditionally spent the bulk of their time doing repetitive drills to learn basic skills. Now they spend the bulk of their time dealing with situational tactics in closely simulated battle conditions. These changes and others led to an increase of the percentage of soldiers firing their weapons in combat situations to almost 100%!

We designed a witness protocol using those [and other] successful ideas. For example, we teach witnesses what the opposition strategies are and give them “bullet proof” responses built on their own words using our Live Fire ^SM approach. Again, using their own language and ideas we help them understand which of their own words are “power phrases” that will persuade jurors. And then we have them practice using those “bullet proof” responses and “power phrases.”

Witnesses who are confident in their ability to communicate their story in their own words, armed with the knowledge of the tactics of the opposition, enabled to cope with the stress of testifying and dealing with experienced interrogators, are the ones that will perform best on the witness stand.

The plaintiff had been involved in a rear-end collision where she received a serious back injury that required two surgeries.  The defense was naturally focused on previous accidents she had years before.  As we talked to her about those previous accidents, she told us a story about ending up in a field and being chased by a bull.  Not only was it funny, but it struck us as a brilliant way to disprove the defense’s claim that the previous accident caused her current injuries.  After all, how could she run from a bull and climb over a barbed wire fence if she was seriously injured? And if the jury is having a laugh at the somewhat silly visual image this testimony evokes, it makes it almost impossible for the defense to convince them that this was a serious accident.

Telling stories that are tangential to the main testimony is a great way to solidify the credibility of the witness.  Even if you don’t have an interesting tangent for the jury this strategy can work for the witness.  Funny how our memory works; what we remember and what we don’t of any experience.  Use that ubiquitous experience to allow the jury to see your witness as credible.