Keeping Your Jurors Organized
Keeping Your Jurors Organized
By G. Christopher Ritter
Our society values spontaneous creativity: We marvel at jazz improvisations, delight in a stand-up comic’s ability to create something out of nothing and admire an artist who quickly turns a blank canvas into a gorgeous painting.
Yet we all know that being spontaneous carries some risk in the courtroom. If you have tried even one case, you probably have a story to tell about that “sudden flash of genius” that came to you as you were standing in court, that spontaneous idea that seemed so brilliant — until you opened your mouth and unleashed the equivalent of a loud burp in a silent library.
That is not to say that you should avoid all spontaneity during trial. In fact, there are plenty of times when being spontaneous is not only helpful but also necessary. But with certain matters, you cannot risk improvising. That’s because whenever you’re truly spontaneous, you risk leaving out a salient point. And just as nature abhors (and will fill) a vacuum, jurors hate blank spots in a case and will spontaneously fill them — often in ways that do not favor your client.
This typically happens in two instances. The first is when you leave gaps in your underlying case story. Jurors expect a complete (or relatively complete) explanation of what happened in the case. When lawyers fail to provide information about a crucial point, the jurors first get suspicious and then fill in that gap for themselves. Unfortunately, since they start off suspicious, the jurors often fill in the gaps in ways that are unfavorable to the clients.
The second instance is when jurors do not know what they are supposed to do or how they are supposed to respond in the jury room. I cannot tell you how many times I have watched mock jurors, excited by closing arguments, rush into deliberations, pull out their pencils, grab the verdict form and then . . . sit staring at each other, unsure of what to do next. Eventually, someone fills the gap by suggesting how to proceed, often in a way that is either well-meaning (but wholly ineffective) or disadvantageous to your client. How do you avoid this? You pay attention to the adage that “organization is the enemy of improvisation,” and you arm your jurors with tools that help organize them in a way that favors your client during deliberations. And one highly effective way to do this is with trial graphics.
In addition to helping you illustrate and simplify your case, trial graphics provide an easy way to organize and reiterate material throughout your trial. That is, most trials have an abundance of people, information and rules for jurors to keep straight, so organization is key from beginning to end. But organizational tools are especially important during three key points: opening statements, expert witness testimony and closing arguments. In fact, each of these points provides an opportunity to both carefully shape your jurors’ understanding of the case and show that you have mastery of your material — and that you’re willing to share it.
You can help your jurors get organized during your opening statement in a number of ways. You can tell them what the case is about (e.g., “this case is about one man who was so greedy he stole an employer’s invention and gave it to another company” or “this case is about a woman who had to kill her husband to keep him from harming her children”). You also can put up timelines of your case that include the very most important interactions and transactions; create posters that introduce the jurors to the key players involved (using simple headshots with captions), and define the legal concepts that form the basis of the case. The point of these graphics is to let the jurors know why they’re in the courtroom, what they’re going to be learning about, and what they’re being asked to do.
Although we like to think that our expert witnesses will provide everything that our jurors need to know, the truth is that expert witness testimony can sometimes benefit from a little explication, because expert witness testimony can sometimes get confusing — or boring. The most effective expert witness support comes from what I call “nesting doll” outlines, or connected outlines that lay out what the expert was asked to study, show what she found and explain why what she found was important. If you think about it, these are the issues jurors care most about and, if you organize them at the beginning of the expert’s testimony (usually after she is qualified), you can help direct their understanding of the testimony.
But it’s in your closing argument that keeping your jurors organized can have the greatest benefits, because that’s when you need to be able to summarize your case themes, reiterate your technical points, and flesh out any jury instructions that may be coming from the judge.
If there was complicated evidence, for instance, (or just a lot of it), you may want to create graphics that summarize what the evidence was and why it was important. Throughout a trial involving an airplane crash, for instance, we used a series of graphics showing that the crash was really due to pilot error, not a defect in the airplane. For the closing argument, we used one slide of the crashed plane, to which we added small illustrations representing the challenges facing the pilot that night. He was old; he chose to fly into an airport with no air traffic control; he tried to land a big plane on a short runway and he was flying on a very foggy night. All of that evidence had been discussed at length during the trial, but in closing arguments, we just wanted to give the jurors a summary that they could easily remember and discuss during deliberations.
Finally, graphics that help explain the jury instructions themselves can be invaluable. For instance, you might want to put up slides of text pulls from the applicable law or instruction. You might want to provide brief tutorials on what the law means or what alternative criminal counts might require. You might even provide checklists that the jurors can use to keep track of the elements that are — or are not — present as they try to decide on a verdict.
Of course, these tools don’t just keep your jurors organized, which is in itself invaluable. They also show that you truly understand your case and that you’re willing to share that understanding with your jurors. And in the end that shows that while you may improvise with a flourish when you need to, you’re also very well-organized yourself.
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Step 4 To Massive Success In Your Business With CMPS
Are you ready to move onto the 4th step in creating massive success in your business with CMPS?
If you have been following along, and hopefully implementing these strategies, you have cetainly noticed that we have been building upon each step to make your media placement campaign stronger.
The steps we´ve covered so far are:
Step 1. Write an article
Step 2. Submit your article
Step 3. Turn your article into a press release and submit it.
And now step 4, take your article/press release and turn them into audio and video media.
I hear some of you complaining already. Saying things like that´s too technical or I don´t want to be seen on video and God know whatelse.
Let´s make one thing perfectly clear. You have got to get over it if you ever plan to succeed in business.
I know the internet is pretty anonymous, but you still have to be able to express yourself and establish a relationship with your potential customers.
Now there are ways to get around all that if you absolutely have no desire to do such a thing. You can always hire someone to do it for you. Keep in mind though, that professional voice talent alone could cost upto $100 an hour.
Now I think for thatkind of money it´s at least worth it to give it a try.
Another idea that my mentor, Mary Gersten, suggested is to go to is your local high schools or community college where the have video production. There you can probably find volunteers or make a small donation.
I say you don´t even have to be fancy with it. Buy/rent a cheap video camera from your local electronic store. Create a video using slides. Do a voice over. Edit it and you are done.
Still to complicated? The internet is your best friend. Go online and do a search downloadable flash video recording studio. Again you will find some for absolutely free. A few can cost you a little money but normally they offer a free 30 day trial.
The advantage of this is, that they supply with video tutorials so that you can cut your learning curve and produce the highest quality video possible.
Ideally you are going to want to produce a powerpoint presentation.
Create the slides and ssave them under picture files , like JPEG.
You want to have any where from 3 to 5 slides with key bullet points from your article.
Now if you follow the video tutorials provided, you will have no problem creating new videos whenever you need them.
Don´t forget that you are planting a seed on your road to massive success in your business. Video and audio are powerful forms of media.
Think about from your own perspective. Aren´t you more likely to feel connected with an advertiser who has presented you something visually?
Of course you are. It adds a whole new demension to your media placement efforts. And it will most definately be rewarding in the end.
That wraps up this segment of our series "9 CMPS Steps To Massive Success In Your Business.
Only 5 steps to go!
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PowerPoint for Educators: How to Make Multiple-choice Quizzes with PowerPoint via VBA
PowerPoint is a multimedia courseware to create multimedia courses to enhance the classroom experience. Also, it is a great assessment tool to create quizzes. The VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) feature in PowerPoint gives educators an accessible way to easily create interactive multimedia quizzes. Here I will teach you how to create multiple-choice quizzes with VBA in PowerPoint with step-by-step illustrations.
Supposing you want to create a quiz with 10 multiple-choice questions and only one correct answer for each question. Take PowerPoint 2007 for example, here are the details.
Step 1 - New a blank presentation
Step 2 - Customize feedback to each question with macroYou may be confused with the first step because the first step in all of the related quiz tutorials online is creating questions and answers. In order to simplify the steps to create multiple-choice quizzes, in this tutorial, I bring forward the feedback customization.1. Set security optionsBefore you can run VBA code, you need to set PowerPoint's security options to permit macros to run. Click the Office button -> PowerPoint options.On the left of the PowerPoint Options dialog box, Click Trust Center, then click Trust Center Settings on right.
Click Macro Settings on the left of the dialog then choose Disable all macros with notification.
2. Start the VBA Editor.Please press Alt+F11 to start the VBA Editor.
3. Customize feedback to wrong answer and right answersIn the VBA editor, Choose Insert -> Module, and then insert a code module for feedback to wrong&right answers.Customize feedback to wrong answers:In the big blank space on the right, type the following 3 lines:Sub Wrong()MsgBox ("Sorry, that's not right. Please try again.")End SubCustomize feedback to right answers:Sub Right()MsgBox ("That's right! You are so smart!")SlideShowWindows(1).View.NextEnd SubThis code for right answer is similar to the wrong answer, except for its "SlideShowWindows" line, which advances the quiz-taker to the next slide.
4. Return to PowerPoint from the VBA EditorPlease press Alt+F11 to return to PowerPoint. Leave the Visual Basic Editor open in the background. In PowerPoint, save the presentation, this will save the new macros as well.
Step 3 - Create questions and answers1. Create question slidesWithin PowerPoint, start a new slide using the Title Only slide layout. Type the first question in the title-text placeholder.
2. Add multiple-choice answersFrom the Insert menu, click Autoshapes -> Action Buttons. Then choose the blank action button. Resize and position the button on the slide. Right click on the button, choose Add Text from the subsequent menu, and type the first answer. Now select the button, copy and paste the button for the remaining answers you'll need on the slide.
3. Add macro to answersRight click on the button, select Hyperlink. The Action Settings dialog box will appear. Choose the Mouse Click tab, and from the "Action on click" area, check the "Run macro" radio button and select "Wrong" macro from the drop-down list. Click OK. Repeat the same setting to other remaining answers.
4. Duplicate the slide to as many as 10 slides.Duplicate the slide and substituent the questions and answers to other questions.Repeat this step 3 to the right answers for each question, and select "Right" macro from the drop-down list.
Step 4 - Save the quiz presentationPress F5 to preview the quiz presentation and save it to PPSX format. Now everything is ok, you create a quiz PowerPoint slideshow successfully.
Besides creating quiz with VBZ via PowerPoint, you also can make more interactive Flash quiz for your PowerPoint presentation with 3rd party Flah quiz maker that can generate stand-alone Flash quiz. Wondershare Quiz Creator is such a Flash quiz maker to help educators create multimedia Flash quizzes for teaching.
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