Trial lawyers should aim to do both, through short, clear, and compelling stories. Successful screenwriters create compelling movie and television scripts with storylines that hold an audience’s attention. Lawyers can learn from the methods used by journalists and other professional writers: present the facts accurately, in a straightforward manner. As someone once observed, “Few sinners are saved after the first 20 minutes of a sermon.” SHORTEN AND SIMPLIFY YOUR COMMUNICATIONS That’s why trial lawyers need to learn simplicity, clarity, and brevity in their advocacy, both written and verbal. Ĭlearly, today’s communication consists of instant news seeking to capture our short attention spans. 1 1 According to 2012 data from Pew Research Center Journalism & Media, available at Most TV commercials during the Super Bowl are 30 seconds long. The median length of a network TV news package is less than two-and-a-half minutes. We live in a world of tweets, not novellas. The results showed that the 30 seconds of the 1990 study had shrunk: the average attention span of the Microsoft study subjects was 12 seconds, which dropped to 8 seconds the longer the communication they were supposed to focus on continued. More recently, Microsoft conducted a study measuring how long people can focus on one thing. ![]() In Milo Frank’s book, How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds, he cites 1990 media research showing that people were only able to give their full, undivided attention in 30-second “bites.” After 30 seconds, the mind will “wander off” unless something new or interesting occurs. The Declaration of Independence has only 300 words. Remember, great ideas do not require a lot of words to express them. The result is they talk too much and for too long. They either lack the skill to do so, are afraid to do so, or are just unwilling to make the effort to do so. ![]() Too many lawyers are afflicted with the curse of not distinguishing the important and relevant from the unimportant and irrelevant. When less is more: Advocate more effectively for your client with a short and simple story Photo illustration ©Getty / sekulicn BY PAUL LUVERA
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