Humanizing the Messenger

You’ve heard us talk about humanizing corporate or governmental clients at trial, but remember, lawyers need to humanize themselves as well.

A fundamental part of forging the connection between jurors and your side of the story is giving juries a messenger they connect with. Recently, we watched an attorney do just that leading the defense’s voir dire.

Instead of launching into questions that managed to be both tedious and invasive, as the plaintiff attorney had done, he stood up holding a single sheet of paper – the same ones the jurors had used to prompt them on their basic demographics. And after cheerfully telling jurors he would never ask them to talk about things he wouldn’t himself, he told them his name, marital status and occupation.

When he reported his time in the county – “about six days” – the jurors laughed, and he successfully diffused any attack the plaintiffs were going to make on our “cowboy” lawyer defending cases 1,500 miles from home.

In two minutes, this attorney endeared himself to the venire and set the tone for trial – straightforward and worried less about offending than about being honest.

Jurors are more observant than they get credit for. They notice American flags on a lawyer’s lapel or the license plate frame on a lawyer’s car, and they listen more carefully than you might imagine. Following a recent trial in Utah, exit interviews revealed that jurors noticed and appreciated our attorneys’ ability to personalize themselves, whether conscious or not.

One juror noted that she saw an attorney with a parking sticker for the same amusement park her children love. Another juror told us that she “appreciated” the attorneys’ personal comments, such as when an attorney mentioned her grandmother came to watch her examine a key witness, or the other lawyer used a hypothetical and alluded to the fact his own daughter had seizures when she was younger.

Although we always urge you to choose your words carefully, in the sea of blue suits and bankers boxes, showing a bit of humanity provides an advantage when telling your side of the story.

If you would like to discuss this and other methods of connecting with a jury, or any other topic related to an upcoming case, please call us at 714.754.1010.