Research in education, communications, psychology, anthropology and cognitive science has given scientific basis to what good storytellers and trial lawyers already know: Themes are critical for helping an audience organize the information they receive and make decisions based on that information.
To persuade a jury, an attorney must develop case themes that help organize the diverse case facts and convey the case theory. Developing persuasive and powerful case themes can be aided by trial consultants who understand themes already circulating in that community and in the general culture that relate to the trial issues. Once you have developed what seem good case themes, you can test them to determine how effective they actually are with the type of people who will hear your case. Mock trials and, in some cases, community surveys, can be used to evaluate and determine the effectiveness of various approaches to case argument.
Often, themes are as important for influencing jurors' damages decisions as their votes on liability. To affect damages awards, attorneys need to influence jurors on the issues of responsibility, blame, and justice.
While many attorneys have a good intuitive grasp of how to develop effective arguments, we bring to bear extensive research traditions that can help support, productively challenge, and empirically test and refine the trial team's themes.
We also have the benefit of deep case experience and many years of empirical research on case types like your own. We are involved in dozens of trials and cases every year. We have observed, interviewed, and collected attitudinal data on thousands of jurors.
We can bring our experience to bear in reviewing relevant case documents to identify major case issues and consulting with the trial team to clarify problematic themes and issues. We analyze the psychological, emotional and communication elements of a case and explore language options to form themes, phrases and mental images of key issues.
Our consultants develop strategies and questions for depositions, formulate a negotiation posture, and evaluate your settlement style options. To assist you during trial, we can also provide memoranda and position papers on strategies and tactics.
All of the consultants at Trial Behavior have extensive social science training and many are experts in areas that can be helpful in analyzing case facts, parties, and witnesses and preparing expert testimony for trial. We can also analyze the datasets and reports of opposing experts in related fields and give evaluations of the soundness of their methods and conclusions. A number of our consultants have considerable experience as testifying experts.
Hiring us to assist with theme development and general case consultation can be a cost effective way to gain the benefit of our experience.