Communicating with Juries by Acting Like a Regular Person: Is It Even Possible?

When lawyers try to communicate with jurors, they risk condescending to them. It's easy to do. Just think of the way lawyers are always setting up a dichotomy between "lawyers" and "people who aren't lawyers." It's exactly what I'm doing in this post. If a prospective juror were to read it, I'd expect him to respond, "How condescending!"

If you don't understand why that would be a proper response, let me tell you a story. I was reminded what it felt like to be a "person who isn't a lawyer" just the other day. I was cleaning up some old notebooks from the basement. I found one that I'd filled up in July 1987. It happened to be the summer before law school and I was reading Karl Llewellyn's Bramble Bush. On a page titled "Words I've Looked Up," I'd written out long definitions to terms like "tort," "strict liability," "negligence," and "demurrer."

When I reread this page the other day, I was a little shocked. There was a time I didn't know what a tort was? Not only that, but it wasn't that long ago. It was so recently, in fact, that I remember lots of details about that summer. Most pertinent to this post, I remember what it felt like to be just a regular person--one of those "people who's not a lawyer."

To put it another way, I remember what it was like to be a typical juror. Here's the key: I wasn't stupid. Despite my lack of legal education, I happened to be damn smart--smarter that I am today, I'm pretty sure. My only failing was that I hadn't yet been indoctrinated into that cozy group of professionals who knew the meaning of words like tort, strict liability, negligence, and demurrer, and who sometimes looked down at those who didn't.

I think you get the point. Try it yourself. By thinking back to a time before law school, you too might be able to get in touch with your inner regular person. I'm certain you'll find that he was smart, articulate, and intellectually engaged. He probably had a wealth of personal experience. If a snotty lawyer had stood up in front of him and said that he was going to "attempt to keep things simple" so that "even a non-lawyer could understand"--well, your inner regular person probably would have been a tad offended. He'd probably have asked the lawyer to get the hell off his pedestal and start acting like a regular person.

And he would have been right. The next time you're talking to a jury, remember that.

Comments

[Foggerty]

My cousin is a magistrate. When I speak with her and she is talking about trails, it is very hard to understand his language. I am not working in this environment and I do not know why have I to listen and to comprehend her. She is in a special world where the words are different and interpretable.

[Katherine]

I had the same experience recently; when I decided not to return to law school... and suddenly realized, there's something else besides law!

[Nick Williams]

I whole heartedly agree with this post. I am now in my second year of law school and I have participated in two trial competitions and one Moot Court competition. I have learned more participating in these activities than in most of my substantive classes. I think the reason I have gotten so much out of these activities is because they taught me something very different from what the other classes teach; how to be the person I was before I started law school.

The best piece of advice I have gotten in preparation for trial competition came when I forgot a rule of evidence. My coach objected to a statement I'd made and it blanked me. I tried to explain in big legalese a principle of evidence law. It didn't go over well.

The attorney stopped me and said, "Nick, do you know what you are talking about?"

I responded "No."

"Then how is the jury going to know what you are talking about?"

Trial practice got much easier after that.

I learned that day that putting a J.D. behind your name didn't make you a different person. It just makes you think you are. I now reserve legalese for class and briefs. Talking big time lawyer talk doesn't impress anyone; usually it just makes people feel stupid. In a field with a poor reputation like the law, that is the last image we want to portray. You don't have to talk down to a jury, nor do you have to try and impress them with your vocabulary. Just talk to people like you did before law school brain washed you. I now it's crazy for some people to even consider after a year or two of the indoctrination of law school, but I promise it is possible.

-Nick Williams

[Acting class Los Angeles]

I guess its possible if you try to act like a regular person in front of the juries. I just remember now that even if it looks like real when you act, there are still glitches and juries may found out that you are only acting in the front of the court.

-peter