You can't tell where a legal decision maker is going until you know where he or she is coming from. In Facts Can't Speak for Themselves, Eric explains how find out where people are coming from, including the parts the jurors themselves can neither articulate nor even fully grasp on their own – the parts that most control every legal decision made both by professionals and the lay juror. These mental processes are related to so much more than just demographics. There's a lot at stake here, mired in each fact-finder's unique and infinite warehouse of life experiences and unconscious imaginings. With them, all legal decision makers first construct many versions from which they finally build a single story – a story that drives their judgments. The facts can't speak for themselves – so it's up to you to speak for them. And when you do, you control the message.

 

In Facts Can't Speak for Themselves, you'll learn:

• How the stories decision makers construct in their minds affect verdicts just as juror backgrounds and beliefs or the attorney's presentation in court do.
• Which focus groups best reveal the range of stories listeners can build from your case.
• How to apply focus group results in negotiation, mediation and trial.
• How to run voir dire more like focus groups and focus groups more like voir dire.
• Why focus group deliberations are the least valuable part of the process.
• Why you do not want to ask focus group members which side they like in a case.
• Why you should think twice before ever again asking a "why" question in voir dire or focus groups.
• How to take full advantage of the only four channels available to deliver any legal case.
• How to recognize, refine and use story elements like theme, position and sequence most memorably.

 

You'll come to see that the Facts Can't Speak for Themselves goes farther, wider and deeper than just your cases. It applies not solely to judges and juries, but to the other "fact-finders" in our lives: significant others, children, parents, neighbors, partners, friends, enemies, everyone – and its message is too powerful to ignore. If we all do make up our own version of the story-at-hand to make decisions, then how long can we afford to stay at arm's length from the process? It will change the way you communicate – on both the professional and the personal levels.

 

Since its release in 2005, Facts Can't Speak for Themselves has been lauded as brilliant, insightful and a "must read." Click here to see what people are saying.

Want to see for yourself? Click here to read a chapter or Click here to view the podcast (excerpted from Eric's workshop based on the book)
Convinced that you need a copy? Click here to order.