Communication Articles for Lawyers

COMMUNICATION AND LAW

Over the years since obtaining my Ph.D. in Communication Studies at the University of Kansas, I have written a number of legal communication and trial practice articles that have been published in various state and national trial lawyer journals, and I additionally authored a book entitled, "Successful Trial Techniques Of Expert Practitioners" that was originally published by Shepards/McGraw-Hill and included in their Trial Practice Series, and that is currently published by the West publishing company. The following are a combination of articles that I published previously, articles that I published previously and have updated, and articles that I have recently written that are being published here for the first time. I hope you find them interesting and helpful for your law practices.

ROLE OF THE TRIAL LAWYER IN SHAPING MEANING AND IMPRESSION FORMATION

The following articles examine the psychology of trial practice and the role of the trial lawyer in shaping meaning and juror impression formation. Communication and impression formation is a multi-faceted interactive process involving the creation and exchange of meaning. It is my belief that the primary role of trial lawyers, in jury trials, is the creation of meaning for the issues, people, and things involved in the trial. The lawyers are creating meaning for jurors to use in deciding the case.

The following articles discuss the psychology of jury trials, and the role of the trial lawyer in shaping meaning and juror impression formation. Several of the articles contain actual excerpts from trial transcripts of well known successful trial lawyers.

• Impression Formation And The Creation Of Meaning In Jury Trials
• The Nature Of Meaning: The Role Of The Trial Lawyer In Creating And Shaping Meaning
• Lawyer Credibility
• Use of Juror's Direct Experiences In Jury Trials
• Use Of Figurative Language To Create Meaning In Jury Trials

JURY SELECTION/VOIR DIRE

• Profiling Jurors For Systematic Jury Selection

TRIAL STRATEGIES IN SPECFIC TYPES OF CASES

I included this article, because after it was published in a trial lawyer journal there were many requests for copies, and it has since been published by request, in multiple trial lawyer journals in the United States and Canada. When I started my career I was given all the bad soft tissue automobile cases that no one else in the office wanted to try. At the time I thought it was a hard life because trying soft tissue automobile cases was like trying to hold on to a handful of sand. Trying these cases turned out to be a great learning experience. The following is what I learned--I hope those of you trying these cases find it helpful.

• Trying Soft Tissue Automobile Cases