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Common Sense Rules of Advocacy for Lawyers

Second Dimension

By Keith Evans The Author Reviews Sample Sections Details Formats Hardbound  $19.95 Softcover    $19.95 Ebook       $4.95

This second dimension is as different from the first as up and down is different from to and fro. It is this:

Human Beings Are Far More Video than Audio

The way we collect most of our information is through our eyesight. Consider the use we make of our senses. In today's world, touch is used mainly for enjoyment: we get a lot of information from handling things, but touch is a subsidiary sense. Smell is much the same for us humans, and so is taste: as devices by which we collect information, touch, smell, and taste take a backseat to sight and hearing. And when you compare sight and hearing, you realize that the modern human being's principal means of fact gathering, of learning, and of understanding, is eyesight.

We don't have a phrase hearing is believing. We are used to television, video, cinema, newsprint, books. Intent listening is something we do with surprising rarity. Drive along with an education tape in your player, a tape designed to bring you up to date on some legal topic. How many times have you found your mind wandering, realizing that for several minutes you just haven't heard a thing? You nod off in your listening far more readily and easily than in your seeing.

What most lawyers ask the factfinders to do in court is to use their second-best device for gathering understanding. And the factfinders do it: on the whole they do it well. But since we don't tie blindfolds on them, they don't switch off their best information gathering device. It is operating all the time while we are appealing to their second-best device.

This obvious truth, this second dimension of reality we are operating in, has to be remembered at all times. People who have studied the psychology of communications have some terrifying statistics for us lawyers. Examples:

• 60 percent of a message is conveyed by body language and visual appearance generally.
• 30 percent of a message is conveyed by tone of voice.
• Only 10 percent of a message comes through the words used.
• Only 10 percent of what people hear gets remembered. If, on the other hand, they see something connected with what they are hearing, as they are hearing it, they remember 50 percent.

They didn't tell me these things in law school. I wasn't given this information during my apprenticeship. Lawyers tend not to know these statistics, just as they don't seem to realize that they are operating virtually all the time in the Video Dimension.

Yet from the moment you enter the courthouse, the chances are you are going to be seen by one or more jurors. When you are in the courtroom itself, you are under the scrutiny of the jury almost full time. This means you are conveying visual messages to the jurors the whole day through. You can't help it.

We all have body language. Without realizing what we are signaling, we are in fact signaling something all the time. Since we can't help it, we simply must know what we are conveying. Appearances count more in the courtroom than most lawyers are prepared to admit or think about. But we are public performers. No less than the actor, the fashion model, and the politician, we are making a visual impression all the time and we must know what that impression is.

Although we may be embarrassed by the idea and perhaps a little shy, we ought to stand regularly in front of a mirror, talking and moving and gesturing, simply to get to know ourselves and to stay knowing ourselves. Try it tonight. See how long you have to look at the most familiar face in the world before a complete stranger looks back at you. It takes a little less than two minutes with most people.

The adult human hardly ever gets a completely new and objective view of himself or herself, but we advocates have a duty to stay in touch with ourselves and know how we are coming across, visually, to the rest of the world. The video recorder is a wonderful tool for self-awareness. Seeing yourself on video can be intimidating, but it will show you things you just hadn't been aware of: how you move your head, what you do with your mouth, your nose, your eyebrows, and, particularly, your eyes. It will show you how you move your hands, your arms, and your body generally. The lines on your forehead and around your nose are especially important. This is because they are the principal components of the frown and the sneer and can easily make you look anxious, or, far worse, disdainful. You can't know how your body is communicating without making a study of yourself.

As soon as you admit to yourself that yes, this Video Dimension is real, some practical rules are staring at you. The more you think about it, the more you'll see, but the most obvious rules are the following:
 

It has been said by one judge that in her court the lawyer who wears polyester has the burden of proof. Jurors have surprisingly high expectations of trial lawyers, and dress is important. The colors you wear, and that your client and witnesses wear, are much more significant than most of us ever pause to think about. If you've never encountered any of the studies that have been done on the impact of color, you should consider attending a seminar by an expert in the field. Until you have seen it physically demonstrated, you are unlikely to appreciate what an astonishing effect appropriate and inappropriate color can have on the impression made by the wearer.

It can even raise ethical questions. Since dressing in the "right" colors can make a person seem healthier and altogether more vital, just as dressing in the "wrong" colors can have the quite opposite effect, what should you do with a client who is constantly in pain but trying to be brave about it? Should she dress so as to look as healthy as possible, or should her colors be chosen so as to make her seem as unhealthy as she is? You'll find a fuller explanation of color considerations in Appendix 1, Why Color is Critical.
 

Common Sense Rules of Advocacy for Lawyers
By Keith Evans

Hardbound, $19.95 Hardbound: 264 pages  ISBN 10: 1587330059 ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-005-6 LCCN:  2003113147 OCLC: 56315474 Published 2004 Dimensions: 7.25 x 7.8 x 0.8 Weight: 1.2 pounds Plus shipping and handling (8% of order, $10 minimum). Discount for bookstores and classroom use. VA sales tax added when shipped to VA address.  Ships within 1 business day Special!  With each paid order of 25 copies or more the hardbound edition, you'll receive one free copy signed by the author, while supply lasts. Publication descriptions and Order form (17-page PDF)

Softcover, $19.95 Softcover: 194 pages  ISBN 10: 158733-185-3 ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-185-5 Published 2010 Dimensions: 6.1 x 9.1 x 0.6 Weight: 0.7 pounds Buy softcover from Amazon (opens in new window) Buy softcover from Barnes & Noble (opens in new window)

Also see

• Legal Spectator & More, by Jacob Stein

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