• Facts Can't Speak for Themselves: Reveal the Stories that Give Facts Their Meaning
 
 
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Facts Can't Speak for Themselves: Reveal the Stories that Give Facts Their Meaning

Facts Can't Speak for Themselves: Reveal the Stories that Give Facts Their Meaning

Eric Oliver offers trial attorneys proven ways to uncover the full range of those "rewritten" stories in focus groups, and how to take their best elements into court to deliver a story more likely to persuade than the one you thought you had.


Availability: In Stock
Publisher :NITA
Format: BOOK

ISBN: 9781556817908

2005
 
$65.00
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    Every decision maker is influenced by far more than his or her background and beliefs. Each judge, negotiator, mediator and juror has an imagination and they use it to create more than one version of your client's case story. They then settle on one private version of your story with which they decide your case.

    Facts Can't Speak for Themselves by Eric Oliver offers trial attorneys proven ways to uncover the full range of those "rewritten" stories in focus groups, and how to take their best elements into court and other venues to deliver a story that is more likely to persuade than the one you thought you had.

    Highlights include:

    •   How and why legal decision makers construct their own case stories and use them to decide a case
    •   The importance of crafting and communicating a case to decision makers as a story and why it can be the most direct and influential way to address decision makers
    •   Which focus groups best reveal the range of stories versions listeners can build from your case
    •   How to run voir dire like focus groups and focus groups like voir dire
    •   Why you should never ask focus group members which side in a case they like
    •   Why you should think twice before ever again asking a "why" question in voir dire or focus groups
    •   How to leave the "bad juror" mindset behind
    •   How to take full advantage of the only four channels available to deliver any legal case

    Appendices include function follows form, a glossary, sample opening statements and small group standards and guidelines.

    For more information on the book or the author, visit www.factscantspeakforthemselves.com.

    CONTENTS

    FOREWORD BY DAVID BALL

    FOREWORD BY ED HERSHEWE

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    PREFACE

    CHAPTER 1. MAKING UP YOUR MIND

    1.1 SEEDS OF JUDGMENT
    1.2 TERRAIN OF THE STORY CONTEXT
    1.3 STORY ELEMENTS
    1.4 PROCESS OF STORY GROWTH
    1.5 SEEKING OUT STORIES

    CHAPTER 2. LIVES OF THEIR OWN

    2.1 TEMPTING TYPES
    2.2 FAMILIAR GROUND
    2.3 NEW GROUND
    2.4 ILLUSION OF CONTROL

    CHAPTER 3. IN THE BEGINNING

    3.1 ROOTS OF STORY GROWTH
    3.2 LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES
    3.3 COMMON BIAS, EXPERIENCE, AND SENSE
    3.4 THE "RIGHT WAY" TO DRIVE
    3.5 INDIRECT INCLUSION AND EXPANSION
    3.6 PRESUPPOSITION
    3.7 GETTING GROUPS INTO FOCUS
    3.8 THE "PROBLEM" WITH FOCUS GROUPS
    3.9 HOW WE BUILD OUR STORIES
    3.10 PERCEPTIONS AND THEIR INFLUENCE
    3.11 INFLUENCE OF THINKING PROCESSES
    3.12 DECISION MAKING BIASES OR HEURISTICS
    3.13 PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
    3.14 HARVESTING A CASE STORY

    CHAPTER 4. WELL BEGUN

    4.1 PREPARING TO PRESENT
    4.2 VIDEO TESTIMONY
    4.3 VISUAL AIDS
    4.4 SMALL BITES
    4.5 FOCUS GROUP PRESENTATION TIPS
    4.6 GROUND RULES
    4.7 SAMPLE TRANSCRIPT--INTRODUCTION AND JOB DESCRIPTION

    CHAPTER 5. OPEN WIDE

    5.1 INVITING STORIES TO GROW
    5.2 INVITE INPUT
    5.3 REALITY, WHAT A CONCEPT
    5.4 PLANTING THE STORY SEEDS
    5.5 SEEKING SIGNS OF EARLY GROWTH
    5.6 DEBRIEFING PARTICIPANTS
    5.7 POLLING QUESTIONS
    5.8 CULTIVATING STORY GROWTH
    5.9 HARVESTING THE WHOLE STORY

    CHAPTER 6. REFINING THE STORY

    6.1 BRINGING IN THE CROP
    6.2 BRIDGING AND BLENDING
    6.3 NONVERBAL INPUT
    6.4 VERBAL INPUT
    6.5 OPPOSITIONS AND LINKAGES
    6.6 DEGREES OF JUDGMENT
    6.7 WRITTEN INPUT
    6.8 TELL ME A STORY
    6.9 PACKAGING THE FULL YIELD

    CHAPTER 7. WHAT'S YOUR STORY? VOIR DIRE AND OPENING STATEMENT

    7.1 PLOWING--VOIR DIRE
    7.2 MEDICAL LOSS RATIO
    7.3 THE "CRIMINAL MIND SET"
    7.4 KILL THE LONE GUNMAN
    7.5 BENDING THE BRANCH
    7.6 YOUR STORY
    7.7 DISTORTED JUDGMENTS
    7.8 PRIMING THE PUMP
    7.9 SEQUENCING HOT TOPICS
    7.10 EFFECTIVE EDUCATION
    7.11 WINNOWING THE PANELISTS
    7.12 "PLEASE EXCUSE YOURSELF NOW"
    7.13 PLANTING--OPENING STATEMENT
    7.14 THE STORY'S CENTRAL IMAGE
    7.15 UNSUPPORTED CONCLUSIONS
    7.16 TRACKING GROWTH

    CHAPTER 8. START, LOOK, AND LISTEN: VISUAL AND VERBAL AIDS AND EVIDENCE

    8.1 FEAST YOUR EYES
    8.2 COMMON PROBLEMS
    8.3 VISUALS: SO HOW ARE THEY BEST SHOWN?
    8.4 GLEANING IMAGES
    8.5 HANDLING IMAGERY
    8.6 VISUALLY SEEDING PERCEPTIONS
    8.7 VISUALLY SEEDING NARRATIVES
    8.8 "SIGHTLINES"--CONSCIOUS AND OTHER-THAN CONSCIOUS
    8.9 BEHAVIORAL ILLUSTRATION
    8.10 OFFERING VISUALS WITH WITNESSES
    8.11 ONE STORY, MANY MOUTHS

    CHAPTER 9. SOWING PREMIUM SEEDS: STORY DELIVERY

    9.1 FINISHED PRODUCTS
    9.2 CASE ONE: SURGICAL NEGLECT
    9.3 FOCUS-GROUP VERSION OF EVENTS
    9.4 LANDMINES
    9.5 PLANNING AND PLANTING
    9.6 DELIVERY AND RECEIPT OF THE STORY
    9.7 CASE TWO: FIRST-DEGREE MURDER
    9.8 CASE THREE: NEGLIGENT DELIVERY OF SERVICE (ELECTRICAL UTILITY)
    9.9 CASE FOUR: PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT

    APPENDIX 1: FUNCTION FOLLOWS FORM

    APPENDIX 2: GLOSSARY

    APPENDIX 3 SAMPLE OPENING STATEMENTS: THEORY IN PRACTICE

    CASE ONE
    CASE TWO
    CASE THREE

    APPENDIX 4 SMALL GROUP STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES

    INDEX

     

    Eric Oliver


    Eric Oliver, the founder of Meta Systems, specializes in nonverbal, verbal and implicit communication skills and has worked with attorneys for over twenty-two years, teaching them and their staff effective communication skills. In training at major law firms and bar associations, Mr. Oliver shows lawyers how to build a presentation plan for each case that integrates the verbal, visual and personal parts of the trial, based on jurors' needs and expectations as uncovered in focus groups and voir dire. This directed communication often includes themes, metaphors, visuals, and performance to achieve the goals desired. His work has been the subject of feature articles in Lawyers Weekly and ABA Journal. Oliver is a faculty member of ATLA's National College of Advocacy and often speaks to law associations and state and local bar groups around the country. He is a regular contributor to The Trial Lawyer Journal and has written for TRIAL magazine. He holds an MA in human development and a pending Ph.D. in psychology.

     

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