Adrenaline, Evidence & Impact: How Trial Presentations Power the Verdict

As a Trial Technician or Trial Presentation Consultant, whatever term you want to attach to what we do in the courtroom, I’m convinced we are inherent sprinters. Whenever I am interviewing people to join our team or explaining what I do for a living, I always say, “we sprint, we don’t run marathons” and this ability is critical to our success.

The trial is the finale in which we take all the evidence the team has gathered over the previous months and years and help them weave it into a compelling narrative that scoops up the judge and jury and carries them to the finish line. In some ways, you could liken it to the last leg of a relay race. Our role is to come in for that last leg, sprint like mad and make sure we finish strong and take the trophy home.  

My older brother pointed out to me recently that I excelled at sprinting when we were kids. “She was the fastest runner in our school,” he told my husband, who looked at me bewildered before making a comment about having never seen me sprint. We’ve been together for twenty years and although it’s true, I don’t run anymore, almost everything I do is sprint. My profession being a prime example. Indeed, I believe sprinting is my sweet spot. Finding the energy to work eighty-five hour weeks in trial even while six months pregnant at almost forty doesn’t come as easily to some. 

I seem to have adopted sprinting as a lifestyle choice. I think my love of “sprinting” is probably what makes me so successful. I’m not attached to the path we take, only that we finish strong and victorious. With the trial team, I assess which strategies to employ to ensure a successful landing with the jury under our wings. We can’t be careless or we’ll lose them along the way.

We show up ready to take off at tremendous speed, unfazed by the unforgiving, ever-changing court schedule. Many would find the “hurry up and wait” of it all relentlessly unbearable, but when you live for the sprint, you can pivot on a dime and await the next take off - the next starting bang - before you fire away.

There’s something magical about trial. It’s exciting. It’s invigorating. For some, the pressure carries an insurmountable weight, but for the others of us, who are drawn to it, the pressure acts as a catalyst to fuel the blast needed to take you all the way to end, to spark the creative juices that allow you to see the paths to connect with the jury all along the way. I don’t have those same creative, connective insights without that adrenaline surging through my veins. The power of the pressure switches all the necessary lights on to illuminate the critical components of the case that will ultimately compel the jury to see the client’s story in the desired light. 

The visual display is the show; the art of audience engagement, the true challenge. How do we help the jury decide? We lead them. We relate to them. We simplify our story to the core components; the key evidence. Boil it all down. In order to carry them with us, we shed the excessive, unnecessary details and create a streamlined presentation that focuses their attention by highlighting what is most important. Through our timelines and demonstrative graphics, as well as our live exhibit annotation and punchy impeachment video clips, we are able to hit our marks, gaining momentum all along the way, so that when it comes time to close, they’re already with us. We just need that final presentation push to bring them across the finish line with us so they can in turn deliver us our prize.   

If you let the pressure of trial propel you, there is no stopping what is achievable in the courtroom. The funny thing about trial is that the days keep coming whether you are prepared or not. You can’t put it off. You have to rise to the occasion. The show will go on with or without you. You get one shot. Some wait for years for a mere two weeks in front of a jury that will decide their fate, so we hold on tight, letting the adrenaline fuel us with the power to capture our audience and carry us all across the finish line to victory.  -By Caitlin Stevens Thompson