Articles / Reviews

E.H. Uwe (Ed) Beltz,
Associate Director,
Texas Tech University Law Library
Lubbock, TX

Practice and Procedure
Telling stories, and how that can result in decisions in favor of an attorney's point of view, is a major theme in the trial practice genre. This book twists that perspective slightly by emphasizing the personal and individual stories jurors bring with them to a trial. Written by Eric Oliver, a consultant with over 20 years specialization in trial communication skills for attorneys, the major premise of this book is that jurors each have their own stories. Juror stories are based in part on personal experiences and biases. Knowing this fact, attorneys can help jurors clarify, consciously and unconsciously, the story that a trial attorney wants jurors to believe. Oliver further argues that the stories jurors use to understand a case, and come up with a decision, will change during the course of a trial.

Through numerous stories and examples, Oliver teaches attorneys how to approach jurors and how to use (manipulate?) the stories to arrive at the desired decision. A large portion of this book is dedicated to discussing focus groups and how they can be used throughout the trial process to help attorneys refine their approach to jurors' individual stories. Part of the appendix contains release forms for focus group members and questions to ask at various stages of the process. Oliver also devotes a fair amount of discussion to the psychology of how stories are formed and how they are changed.

Some might find Oliver's techniques nefarious and manipulating. At several points while reading this book, I found myself thinking — this guy is really good! However, I then wondered whether, with all the planning that goes into picking juries, if his techniques couldn't be almost an abuse of a juror's free will. (He even focuses on how attorneys should consider using his techniques during voir dire to discover jurors' stories.) Others might find his technique to be empowering in that they provide attorneys with another tool to help jurors reach sound decisions.

In either case, this book is a must read. By selecting this book to publish, The National Institute of Trial Advocacy provides yet another indication that this book is worth owning. There is much to learn from this book. It really is not a reference book in the traditional sense, rather it is a monograph that should be read all the way through, and then read again for detailed instruction. For these reasons, this book is a must have for any law school with a trial advocacy or trial practice emphasis. It might be worthwhile having more than one copy. Any attorneys who will be in trial practice should consider having this title in their personal collection.

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