How Important is Jury Appeal

            Twenty-five years ago when I started practicing law I would give potential new clients a book before their deposition would be taken to read in preparation for their testimony. Contained within this book were twenty-five golden rules to giving a deposition. It didn’t take very long after starting my practice to realize that the book did not work. The book did not work simply because people cannot remember twenty-five rules. In fact, our minds have a hard time retaining almost any rule beyond telling the truth.

            Besides telling the truth, what I have found most important in preparing a client for their deposition is “jury appeal”. Whether you realize it or not the defense attorney and any one else who is attending your deposition is assessing you and your presentation. That is why I tell client’s to be wonderful, to be kind, to be cheerful, to be thrifty, to be brave, to be clean, and to be reverent. To be everything that they would want to be if they were appearing at a job interview. I often instruct my client to pretend as though the jurors are standing behind the defense attorney listening to your answers. Your answers should not simply be “yes” and “no”. If anything you should be overwhelmingly kind and constantly engaging with your answers. Again, I think the best analogy is to pretend as though you are at a job interview. If you are at a job interview you are going to do anything and everything to engage the person that is your interviewer. You are going to try and make a connection between yourself and that person and ultimately you want them to go away from you saying, “I like this person”. The greatest compliment that you will ever receive from the defense attorney will be if he or she admits that the jury will like you. Once they have given in on that important point, that tells us one thing, and that is that they believe that you are going to be successful in front of a jury. That stimulates the defense attorney to be communicating with his client about why they should come to mediation and try to resolve your case. So again, you want to be wonderful, trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. That is called jury appeal.

Dean Burnetti, Burnetti P.A.