I try to Read Regularly to find new ideas to use in litigation. While reading part one How to Persuade of Shane Read's book Winning at Public Speaking I found some new ideas to incorporate into the Four-Step Opening Statement.
The Defense Four-Step Opening Statement involves going over the following in an opening statement:
- What is the case about;
- What happened;
- The evidence that supports my "theory of the case"; and
- Why the government's case doesn't hold water.
This article focuses on step 2 telling the jury what happened using a persuasive story.
As Shane Read points out that just hearing the word "story" will help captivate the audience's attention. Through my own experience and understanding the more interested the judge or jury is in your argument the more receptive they are to it. Further the more interesting the argument the more latitude the judge will give you in arguing your case.
SHAPING THE CASE
"Once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it."
- Francis Bacon
Shane Read cites the quote above in his book when discussing confirmation bias. People will conform the facts they hear with the facts they believe to be true. This means you shouldn't necessarily start your opening statement in chronological order.
Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking Fast and Slow stated a similar concept about anchor questions (or anchor facts). This occurs when the answer to the first question can affect the answer to the second question. A study cited by Shane Read and Daniel Kahneman asked someone how happy they were and how often they dated, and then they reversed the order of the question. The correlation between dating a lot and being happy was only high if the researcher asked how often they dated first and how happy they were second. The correlation was low if they asked how happy there were first and how often they dated second.
In conclusion some attorneys believe the theory of your case should be told as a persuasive story, and should be told in a way that the jury will conform the evidence to your theory of the case.
