“Who are you going to believe – me or your own eyes?” – Chico Marx You may guess correctly as to the majority response to that judgment-testing tease, but research shows that your preferred inclination may be a debatable conclusion. And so was my thought, after once witnessing […]
“The shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story.” – Anthony de Mello […]
My client called it her “Grand Finale” graphic: The summation animation that would bring the whole of her argument, testimony & presented evidence together into one final and compelling, composite picture. Via it’s multivariate depiction of the total body of evidence, this animation became the collective “nail in the coffin” against the defendants in the case. […]
Albert Einstein, Aristotle and Salvador Dali advocated for it. And recent scientific studies have confirmed that this mental state – and the resultant cognitive power of that state – can help litigators more fully excel at their craft. Those who study this optimal mental acuity call it “incubation time”. Trial attorneys are very well schooled and hone immeasurable career experience into […]
“The shortest distance between a human and truth is a story.” – Anthony de Millo Every litigator knows that jurors respond to a good story. Facts and Story – one gives credence to the other, prompting persuasive resonance with the juror. But when strategizing trial demonstratives to help convey the facts of the story, often […]
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” proclaimed Neil Armstrong as he became the first human to walk on the earth’s moon. Neil travelled 240,000 miles to then step out onto the lunar surface and take a short lunar hike. But how far did he walk? How do we understand the […]
The use of color in trial presentation design is becoming less an aesthetic choice and more a strategy of designed persuasion – to maximize a positive jury response to, and retention of, your argument. More than being emotionally persuasive, research reveals that color acts directly upon the brain’s potential for heightened cognition and retention. Scientists and psychologists […]
The 1937 patent prosecution history for the first electric guitar strikes a familiar refrain for today’s IP attorneys, except where prior art claims trace back surprisingly to a 19th century long-distance oral communications invention. The electric guitar—the transmuted iconic American instrument that in turn helped transform jazz and blues music and later propel the rise of […]
Bad graphical design can turn otherwise obvious statistical patterns of cause and effect into the visually arcane and confused. A profoundly tragic example of this is the frustrated attempt by NASA engineers to abort the fatal NASA Challenger launch of January 27th, 1986. But what can trial attorneys learn from this terribly sad case of visual miscommunication? […]
During the course of a long and complex trial, a presenting attorney may not know what the jury is thinking, but if the attorney knows how jurors think, the introduction of a well-conceived Analogy, Metaphor or Familiar-Contextual Comparative demonstrative could well make the difference between shaping and guiding the perceptions of a jury … or […]
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