Three Best Public Speaking Practices to Grab the Jurors During Opening Statements

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Three essential best practices, used by highly regarded public speakers, must also be used by trial lawyers who want to win. Forensic Accounting

1) Language. Use language that the jurors can relate to. Find and use every day language in place of subject-specific terms and jargon. The more memorable you make your language, the better the jury will remember it and take it to heart.

Ask your experts and other witnesses to use everyday language as well. If you create a substitute for a technical term ask your expert witnesses to use that term too. The witness can use the technical term at the start of their testimony and then re-define it with the lawyer's choice, so it's clear that the expert and the lawyer are talking about the same thing.

Speaking in everyday language doesn't mean using waste words ('like,' 'you know') or casual language such as "bad stuff" when you mean "bad results" or "negative effects." The jurors will lose respect for someone who seems they can't be bothered with articulating ideas properly. Expert Witnesses

2) Sentence structure. Use short sentences in the active voice. This means one subject and verb per sentence. Where you think you would put a preposition ('and,' 'therefore,' 'however') use a period instead. Then begin the next phrase as a new sentence.

The active voice sounds like this: "Dr. Defendant cut into the patient's abdomen." The passive voice sounds like this: "The patient was cut open by Dr. Defendant."

3) Tell stories. Stories are based on the facts yet emphasize action. Reporting descriptive details interrupts the story's action. Your short sentences in the active voice must be focused on action. Telling the color of the room, or the age and model of a piece of equipment in a standalone sentence doesn't move the action forward.

Incorporate necessary descriptive details into the action. Instead of: "The car was a '98 Chevy SUV. Mr. Defendant drove it through a red light. The red light was at the intersection of Maple and King streets" say" "Mr. Defendant drove his '98 Chevy SUV through the red light at the corner of Maple and King Streets." The jury will hear the action and be primed to hear the next action, rather than being stopped in their thinking by the dead-end description of the vehicle.

Use the present tense as you tell your stories. Begin by asking the jurors to go back with you to the time when the action begins. Then you introduce the first action in the present tense, and keep the present tense throughout the story. The present tense helps the jurors stay with you and increases the power of the action verbs you use. The jurors feel the action because it is happening now. When they feel it, they remember it.

Look for opportunities to add vocal variety in the telling of the story. Vocal variety includes volume, speed of speaking, and pauses. Pauses help the jurors keep up with you. Just be sure not to make the pauses so long that the jurors get impatient and feel you're talking down to them.

Speed of speaking means you vary your talking speed at times depending on the action you're telling about. If something happens in slow motion, slow down your speaking. If something happens quick as a wink, you could tell that part of the story a bit more quickly. Don't overdo this and don't do it for any long periods of time. Just vary the speed where it fits your content.

Voice volume should be used in the same way as speed. Speak more loudly or more softly depending on the action you're describing. Be careful not to sound judgmental with your volume-if you yell during a sentence or two that describes an action that people might find outrageous, you overpower the action with the emotion of the volume. People feel manipulated, and that is counter to your desire during the opening statement.

These three best practices used by professional public speakers for all audiences in all situations and for all topics will serve you well as you ask the jury to pay attention to you and stick with you from the opening statement and through the trial.

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