Jun 10, 2026 · 37 min · 13 segments
Send us Fan Mail Trial lawyers often rely on courtroom advice that sounds true because it has been repeated for years. But juries do not decide…
Exactly.
And because you're a plaintiff trial lawyer, you just cannot fully predict how these 12 specific people are gonna react to the narrative you've spent years building.
You can't.
You can't predict the specific deliberation dynamics that will unfold behind a closed door.
You can't predict exactly how they'll assess witness credibility, and you certainly cannot predict how they will respond to your damages model.
Right.
And because that level of uncertainty is deeply uncomfortable, I mean, human beings hate uncertainty, you naturally seek shortcuts.
Yeah.
You look for rules to impose order on the chaos.
Yeah.
You listen to the mentor who tells you, "Always strike the engineer."
Oh, right, or, you know, "Never leave a teacher on the panel."
Exactly.
And over decades, these shortcuts have hardened into courtroom folklore.
It's this advice passed down through generations, shared at legal conferences, and treated as accepted wisdom without, well, without ever being rigorously tested.
Which is exactly why we need to scrutinize those assumptions today.
Because the human brain, particularly a highly trained legal brain operating under the intense, prolonged pressure of a catastrophic injury trial, naturally craves certainty.
It's a survival mechanism, really.
It absolutely is.
Yeah.
But, uh, when you substitute folklore for empirical evidence, you are building your entire trial strategy on a foundation of untested assumptions.
Right.
The most effective trial teams practicing today are not the ones with the most entertaining war stories or the oldest, most revered folklore.
The truly effective teams are the ones most willing to challenge their own assumptions, you know, before a jury does it for them.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And because you're a plaintiff trial lawyer, you just cannot fully predict how these 12 specific people are gonna react to the narrative you've spent years building.
You can't.
You can't predict the specific deliberation dynamics that will unfold behind a closed door.
You can't predict exactly how they'll assess witness credibility, and you certainly cannot predict how they will respond to your damages model.
Right.
And because that level of uncertainty is deeply uncomfortable, I mean, human beings hate uncertainty, you naturally seek shortcuts.
Yeah.
You look for rules to impose order on the chaos.
Yeah.
You listen to the mentor who tells you, "Always strike the engineer."
Oh, right, or, you know, "Never leave a teacher on the panel."
Exactly.
And over decades, these shortcuts have hardened into courtroom folklore.
It's this advice passed down through generations, shared at legal conferences, and treated as accepted wisdom without, well, without ever being rigorously tested.
Which is exactly why we need to scrutinize those assumptions today.
Because the human brain, particularly a highly trained legal brain operating under the intense, prolonged pressure of a catastrophic injury trial, naturally craves certainty.
It's a survival mechanism, really.
It absolutely is.
Yeah.
But, uh, when you substitute folklore for empirical evidence, you are building your entire trial strategy on a foundation of untested assumptions.
Right.
The most effective trial teams practicing today are not the ones with the most entertaining war stories or the oldest, most revered folklore.
The truly effective teams are the ones most willing to challenge their own assumptions, you know, before a jury does it for them.
Yeah.
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