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I see your Nunc Pro Tunc and I will raise you one Ex Parte Motion and a Habeas Corpus. Boy, talk about a Non Sequitur.  As a trial attorney, you probably know and use more Latin phrases in a week than most jurors will hear in a lifetime and that is a curse. Specifically, it is the Curse of Knowledge.

An expert is one who has specialized knowledge that is not readily available to the general public.  As a trial attorney, you are an expert in law.  The Curse of Knowledge is present when you forget what it was like before you had specialized knowledge of the law and you try to communicate with jurors as if they share some of your expertise.

The jargon and technical language you have learned is meaningful to you and is a good way to communicate with other attorneys. However, legal jargon and legal technicalities are not meaningful to those who don’t have the same expertise.

If you expect a juror to remember and use anything you say, you must overcome the Curse of Knowledge. You must swap legalese for concrete language.

Concrete language facilitates learning, especially when the person is learning something new. Concreteness helps the person develop building blocks of understanding.  Here are two hints to keep in mind when making a presentation to a jury:

• Senses: If you can examine something with your senses, it is concrete. A hamburger is concrete. American cuisine is abstract.
• Specific: Concreteness is typically a matter of a specific person engaging in a specific act at specific time. For example, this is a good concrete statement: “The defendant told my client the product was safe, even though the defendant had a research study showing it was not safe.” A less useful abstract statement might be, “The defendant repeatedly showed deliberate indifference.”

Putting it all together
Concrete messages are easier to remember. As a trial attorney, that is what you want. You want the jury to remember your message. The barrier to being concrete is forgetfulness – forgetting that other people don’t know what you know. Remembering to make your message concrete will help you Combine the art of Law…with the laws of Science.