Is trial advocacy art, science, or some of each? The answer is definitely the third, although the science part often gets lost in the shuffle or is alleged science with no data to back it up [think 80% of juries decide the case after opening” or “a picture plus words causes 60% fact retention”]. Finding the true science for persuasion takes some work but pays off grandly.

Efforts abound—trial advocacy texts now include a chapter on brain science; lecturers discuss seminal works such as thinking fast and slow: and blogs on brain science, cognitive psychology and the courtroom try to fill the gap. Words like “dopamine” and “on the same wavelength [neural coupling] are in our vocabulary and teaching slides. But to get a full picture, if there is but one book any trial lawyer or trial skills teacher should read this year, it is John Blumberg’s “Persuasion Science for Trial Lawyers.” Reviews that begin in such a manner are often exaggerated or unreliable, but here the label fits.

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