As we have distilled our experience into these ideas on how to persuade, we have been impressed by how sensible people are.  Jurors have consistently shown a commitment to trying to find justice, and have typically told us what helps them find it.  Every case is about people, whether it is a personal injury case (which is obvious in ways that can make it hard) or even an intellectual property case (which is obscure in ways that make the ‘people’ part of story extremely useful).  When human experience becomes a factor in the story, it can be perplexing to know how to present it.  Low key?  Righteous indignation?  Moral outrage?  Stoic strength?

What jurors want is for you to lead them with facts, and follow them with emotions.  In other words, it doesn’t always have to be ‘just the facts’, but it can never be ‘mostly the feelings’.  What we all prefer is to hear the facts, discover our feelings about them, and then be joined in our feelings.  So the structure is:

1. Share the facts (Objective instruction).
2. Allow the summary or results of the facts to be understood—and felt (Subjective instruction).
3. Reflect the feelings that are already being experienced (Joining).

Lead the jurors with the facts, follow the jurors with the emotions.

Related posts:

1. Simple Jury Persuasion: Alpha and Omega Persuasion Strategies
2. Simple Jury Persuasion: The ‘attitude alignment’ effect & persuasion
3. Simple Jury Persuasion: Facts do not believers make
4. Simple Jury Persuasion: KISS–Keeping it simple, simple…
5. Simple Jury Persuasion: Can walking to the jury room make jurors forget your evidence?