In
my ongoing research of what jurors think and how they decide cases, I am once
again reminded of the enduring “CSI effect,” and how lawyers would do well to
pay more attention to it.
Simply
put, the “CSI effect” is jurors’ overriding, sometimes obsessive, need to
explore for themselves every bit of physical evidence in an attempt to come to
a fair and just decision. This is true whether the case is civil or criminal.
Contracts are scrutinized, emails pored over and signatures examined with the
same zeal as skid marks and bloodstains.
What’s
the lesson here? It’s up to you, the attorney, to look at your evidence every
which way and give a forceful, compelling, interpretation to your evidence so
it cannot be re-interpreted in some unfavorable way by a jury that examines the
evidence with a keener eye than yours. Use visuals of all kinds, videos,
graphics, charts, and mock-ups where appropriate, to emphasize and bring home
your position on the evidence. Even when there is no way for you or your
experts to say with conviction “Here’s the smoking gun!” offer the jurors the
strongest probable interpretation that can be drawn from the evidence.
Leaving
the interpretation up to the jurors is taking a chance you can ill afford when
you want to win.
