The only way to harness the minds and hearts of your jurors is to forget about your case and start telling a story. Threading a storyline into the entire courtroom drama and empowering your jurors to become heroes will awaken each jurors’ desire to be the hero and motivate them to action. Through this change in perspective, you will find yourself becoming the mentor, your client assuming the role of the story’s victim, and your jurors, inspired to action, taking the most powerful role of all.
So, what makes a case a story?
Stories have a distinctive point of view. You can tell a story from multiple points of view. As the jury’s mentor, you need to decide whose viewpoint you will show. It could be that of a frightened mother, laboring with a baby who is not getting enough oxygen; her husband, as he stands helplessly by in the delivery room; a nurse’s aide, who is as helpless as the father; or the distressed baby. It could even be from the point of view of an inanimate object.
Stories have a precise location (scene). Stories must have a place. They don’t occur in the abstract. What place brings your story alive? How are you going to show these places to the jury? Instead of telling them about the place, wouldn’t it be so much more powerful were you to re-create the scene in the courtroom? Does that sound crazy? It’s not. It works.
Stories have a logical sequence. How do you want to sequence your story? Any given portion must move forward in sequence, but that does not mean you have to start at the earliest event and move inexorably forward. You can start at the beginning, but you can also begin your story at the end, or in the middle, or with a flashback. In particular, stories almost always follow the following sequence of events:
Once upon a time . . .
And every day . . .
Until one day . . .
And as a result of that . . .
And as a result of that . . .
And as a result of that . . .
Until, finally . . .
And ever since then . . .
This format — evident in all kinds of stories, from Homer to Harry Potter — sets the tone of your case. It also creates the critical subtext from which your jurors’ heroic instincts will develop.
Why should jurors care? Because you have anchored your case to a visual, fact-based storyline. Not only does it compel your jurors to care about your case, but it gives them an active role in the story’s resolution.
To learn more, read the full article here
Recommended Titles for Learning How to Tell Better Stories in Trial: