Jury Appeal

One of the critical factors we are finding about witness performance is that there are questions that the witness fears being asked and this fear creates much stress and ultimately inconsistent behavior on the stand.  Since stress induced, inconsistent testimony is probably the greatest threat to cases, it has become a top priority to understand what these feared questions are.  We ask outright, but sometimes we don’t get the real answers.  This is where some understanding of body language comes into play.

Recently, we were prepping a witness that was very nervous about her testimony.   We were able to alleviate much of that nervousness by helping her focus her testimony and giving her a clear understanding of what place her testimony had within the trajectory of the case.  However, I sensed there was still something else we hadn’t discussed that was bothering her.  Perhaps it was unconscious?  So I started to ask some tangential questions and low and behold when I approached one subject there was a definitive tell.  I approached this area several more times and as I did each time she reached for her neck with her hand.  This was the only time she made that movement.  This is clear body language that indicates nervousness or lack of confidence.  This area of inquiry was about living arrangement between her son and his girlfriend as well as between the client and her live in boyfriend.  Because of this body language I confronted the area directly and we were able to alleviate her nervousness that the opposition would exploit these “moral deficits.” [Note, the moral deficits were in her head, not mine].

I tell attorneys that what we do with witnesses is very sophisticated, but often the lay person won’t notice some of the key things we do.  This is an example of that at play.  I doubt the attorney realized the reason why I circled around to that area of inquiry was body language.  I have found that knowing how to identify the basic “tells” of body language is very helpful in working with witnesses.