For What It's Worth: The Power of Story in Determining Damages in Personal Injury Cases

How does one quantify a client's pain and loss? What is the best and most compelling approach to representing your client's suffering in mediation and trial? An effective damages phase of a personal injury case should move a jury beyond data and statistics – it should tell the story of your client's loss. It should create empathy and action. The best way to create empathy is by telling the story of your client's loss and suffering.

This program will cover practical storytelling techniques that create empathy and compel action on your client's behalf. It will help answer the following questions: Why is empathy critical in a damages narrative? How can you turn your client from stereotype to archetype? How should you conduct an interview to get the most compelling narrative? How can you structure your damages case like a story?  What are the effects of a powerful damages narrative during mediation?

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify how the story creates empathy during a trial

2. Develop the basic mechanism of storytelling

3. Apply storytelling in interviews to get the best damages narrative

4. Determine how to apply storytelling technique in a damages narrative