Witnesses Should Choose Wisdom Over Wisecracks

We’ve all encountered expert witnesses who think they’re the next Jay Leno, and just can’t help themselves from cracking wise and hoping to get a chuckle from the jury.  Maybe you’ve even encouraged witnesses to do this to help them establish “rapport.”

News flash – jurors couldn’t care less if your expert is funny.  

We recently conducted a nationwide survey of 1,212 jury-eligible participants, and we asked them to choose (from a list) the top three factors that would influence how favorably they view an expert’s testimony.  Only 2 percent chose humor as an important factor – tied for dead last with the witness’ gender.  In fact, more participants (3 percent) chose the witness’ race than their sense of humor.

So what are jurors looking for in an expert witness?  It turns out their values in this regard go back to our number one piece of advice during jury trials: Be considerate of the jury’s time.  Don’t waste their time with incomprehensible jargon, and make sure your experts' experience is relevant (not 30 years ago or in a field only tangentially related to the case at hand).

In fact, the number one factor survey respondents said would influence how favorably they view an expert’s testimony is experience, with 75 percent selecting years of experience as their top factor.  Coming in a strong second, at 71 percent, is the ability to explain things in simple terms.  The witness’ education came in a distant third with 52 percent.

And although a dazzling CV is nice, it may be more important to you than it is to your jurors.  Only 6 percent said having a famous employer (such as Harvard or Stanford) was one of their most important factors – the same number who chose how many accolades the expert has racked up in their field.  The number of papers the expert has published mattered to more jurors (18 percent), but it barely cracked the top five.

This survey lends credence to some of the tips we give witnesses during the hundreds of hours of witness preparation we conduct for clients every year:

• Jokes oftentimes don’t play – jurors want a witness who is considerate of their time, and humor is often at odds with being concise.
• Explain terms and educate the jury – particularly if the subject matter is scientific or technical, the ability to explain clearly is critical. 
• Reinforce your experience – it isn’t bragging for the witness to put the case in the context of how many years she has been in the field, or how many surgeries she has conducted.

Keep these survey findings in mind the next time you’re prepping a witness for deposition or trial.  And get in touch with us if you think your witness could benefit from our experience and insight.  We’ve worked with witnesses including CEOs and nursing aides, and we can help bring out their attributes most likely to appeal to jurors.

We also have a unique online witness assessment tool that can allow you to get feedback about a witness’ deposition video from real people in your jurisdiction.  There’s no reason to guess what a jury might think of your witness.

Please contact Senior Vice President Claire Luna at cluna@juryimpact.net to find out more about our witness preparation services or online witness assessment.

Life is eternal – at least when it comes to our consultations

When we state in our proposals that focus group and mock trials include consultation for the life of the case, we mean it.  Our clients have told us this is one of our best selling points, and one that we may not emphasize enough.

Whether it’s been five days, five weeks or five years since we conducted research with you, we are happy to provide further analysis of any new data or fact that has come your way in the interim (for example, a defendant has settled out or a crucial piece of evidence has been excluded), or produce a list of potential jury selection questions if trial has finally been set.  We do this because we care – we take a strong personal interest in each of our cases and oftentimes years after a focus group can still recite details of a key deposition or recall the language that switched jurors to your side.

If you have worked with us before and would like to talk through previous research with us, contact us anytime.