Juries are not dumb and miss little. They watch you and yours in the courtroom, the back of the courtroom, hallways, restrooms, parking lots, restaurants. Whether or not you think the people you bring to trial with you are capable of looking or acting like stone “creeps” at any moment during the roller-coaster ride of a trial, explain to these men and women in advance the importance of “maintaining” a demeanor which appears professional yet likeable, amiable, fair and genuinely good-hearted.
Jurors, of course, will always surprise you. No matter what an expert might tell you, or how hard you’ve worked at selection, you are always wrong about two or three of them. You’ve heard that. Now hear this: don’t go out of your way to antagonize jurors with sideshows which have nothing to do with the trial itself.
In 1997, after a two-and-a-half week trial, we won a jury defense verdict in a breach of contract and fraud trial involving three established companies and a super-nail biter which no one could call. Everyone had “bad” facts to deal with. All counsel and most witnesses did a fine job. An honest, fair, bright and even-tempered judge