Theater tips and strategies for jury trials

By David A. Ball

Book Overview

"In well-organized chapters on the trial's characters, rehearsal techniques, audience, props, plot, & point of view, Ball's book provides useful advice to novice & experience legal actors. "Even those who never try a jury case will learn a lot about audience persuasion which is a crucial skill in many theaters of a lawyer's life besides producer, theater professor & trial consultant has woven together a highly readable compendium of "how to's" & "how not to's" for trial lawyers. I highly recommend this book for trial attorneys with limited experience. Even seasoned trial attorneys will find Mr. Ball's book a valuable mini-refresher course. The book shows trial lawyers how to use concepts from theater to persuade & motivate. After all, there is no finer stage than the courtroom & no In this revised & expanded second edition, Ball provides practical guidance for voir dire, openings & closings, testimony, & focus groups. He describes what practitioners can learn from actors about their manner, voice projection, & behavior. He tells how to grab the jury from the beginning just as a good movie opening captures the audience. He details the preparation of your "cast" of witnesses so they testify clearly, credibly, & memorably. And he offers advice on telling your story so that it commands attention & motivates jurors to argue for your side.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556814100
• ISBN13: 9781556814105
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: National Institute for Trial Advocacy
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent resource for trial attorneys

This is an excellent resource for litigators, whether novices or 30 year veterans. GREAT material here!

Book for every litigation attorney

I am a defense attorney and this book is fabulous! Its an easy read and creative. I highly recommend it for any attorney that goes before a jury.

There is an Art to Trial Advocacy

This book is the perfect supplement for a trial advocacy textbook. David Ball brings a valuable and fresh perspective to trial lawyers. He can do so because he is not a lawyer, but rather has an extensive background in theater such as being the former chair of the theater department at Duke University. Now, he is a professional trial consultant. For example, Ball urges lawyers to take the lessons that actors, directors and playwrights have mastered (such as the importance of telling a story that reaches the emotions of the audience) and using those techniques at trial. He makes one of many great points when he suggests how a lawyer might have ended Hamlet (badly) as opposed to how Shakespeare did. He then shows how anyone can take the lessons from Shakespeare to craft a strong ending to a closing argument in trial. For opening statements in a personal injury case he teaches that instead of beginning with a saying such as "Driving too fast is negligent," you should capture the jury's attention with "Last August the truck driver sitting over there was going too fast and killed a little girl." Lawyers are too often focused on the details executing techniques and Ball reminds us that developing the art of trial advocacy is the most important skill of all.

A Necessary Tool for the Trial Lawyer

Professor Ball uses his special skill in Theater Arts and perceptions of jury reaction to instruct the advocate in trial techniques.I often refer to this book in CLE presentations along with Wellman's work on Cross Examination.