Effective Storytelling in the Courtroom

What do we want the American courtroom to be? This is perhaps the most vital question facing our criminal justice system today. Although we have constructed an elaborate system of evidential rules and court procedures, a trial is much more than a mere sum of its evidentiary parts. Instead, it is a theater in which the parties act out a human drama and the jury provides the conclusion.

As any experienced trial lawyers know, trials often take on a life of their own, and the outcome of the case is affected by factors that go well beyond eyewitness testimony, exhibits, and stipulations. As shocking as this might seem, factors that are not technically evidence – such as the quality of a lawyers’ opening statements or closing arguments, the appearance and reaction of the defendant in the courtroom – can mean the difference between acquittal or conviction.

As Clarence Darrow once said, “Jurymen seldom convict a person they like, or acquit one that they dislike. The main work of a trial lawyer is to make a jury like his client, or, at least, to feel sympathy for him; facts regarding the crime are relatively unimportant.”

And here is where storytelling comes into play. The very essence of a trial is a story – the story of a human experience. Story is the most powerful tool of persuasion. Very simply, people think in terms of a story, not syllogisms. Imagine telling a story that is so powerful that if the jury could speak back from the jury box, they would be exclaiming, "Of course! That's so true."

To become good storytellers and effective trial lawyers, we must now accept what we once learned to reject, to take up what we once set aside – the human drama, how the experience was lived and felt by the people involved. This course will teach you how.

Learning Objectives:

I.     Learn how to present your client’s set of facts as an effective and compelling narrative 

II.    Understand how various facets of trial presentation and appearance affect jury opinion

III.   Identify best techniques and strategies for presenting your case, your client, and yourself during trial