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![Twenty-three hundred years ago in Rhetoric, Aristotle wrote that persuasive speech was dependent on three variables: the speaker, the subject matter, and the listener. More specifically, Aristotle taught us that three key issues impact persuasiveness; the character of the speaker or Ethos, the veracity of the argument itself, Logos, and […]](https://thejuryexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/perkel-scalia-200x130.jpg "If They Don’t Like You They Won’t Hear You: An Essay on Persuasive Communication")
![Jill D. Schmid, Ph.D., a consultant with Tsongas Litigation Consulting, specializes in the creation and implementation of effective communication strategies, and the design and analysis of research for complex, civil litigation nationwide. My new favorite thing (along with millions of others) is my iPad. It means I don't have to […]](https://thejuryexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/favorite-thing-ipad-201x130.png "May 2010′s Favorite Thing(s)")
![Membership in the American Society of Trial Consultants gives access to a collegial email list where members are able to ask questions and share experiences. This week a discussion began on rural courthouses without metal detectors even in this post 9-11 era. As members began to share their experiences in […]](https://thejuryexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/rural-Milam-Courthouse-201x130.jpg "Courtroom Nostalgia: The Rural American Courthouse")
![The Rules Don't Apply to Me Beth Foley Americans have been bombarded with examples of powerful people acting like the rules don't apply to them. From governors to corporate executives to athletes–there seems to be a new example of poor judgment every week. Is there an upward trend in […]](https://thejuryexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/foley-spitzer-201x130.jpg "The Rules Don’t Apply to Me")
![In the past ten years, the Eastern District of Texas has become a wildly popular venue for plaintiffs in patent cases. This has been attributed to a number of factors including judicial expertise, plaintiff-friendly local rules, speedy dispositions and jurors who are predisposed to find for plaintiffs and award large […]](https://thejuryexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/blackman-rural-juror-button-201x130.jpg "East Texas Jurors and Patent Litigation")
![Despite the legal system's conventional story that our judicial process is devoid of emotions and based on pure reason (Bandes, 1999), attorneys have intuited the role of emotion in jurors' verdict decisions. Attorneys attempt to elicit emotions in jurors during opening and closing statements, or through the use of emotionally […]](https://thejuryexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/salerno-victim-impact-statement-201x130.jpg "Unintended Consequences of Toying with Jurors’ Emotions: The Impact of Disturbing Emotional Evidence on Jurors’ Verdicts")
!["We test communication by conveying a message and having the recipient understand it, be interested in it and remember it. Any other measure is unimportant." — Richard Saul Wurman, Information Anxiety, 1990 The Urgency of Now When an important event happens anywhere in the world today, the speed […]](https://thejuryexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Sanction-Depo-Clip-201x130.png "The Use of Technology to Enhance Communication Strategies in Litigation")
![We love answering the questions that our readers have about our work. This article is written as an answer to one reader's question. Reader Question: "When trial consultants work on witness preparation, what are the goals they seek and how do they work to attain those goals?" Let me […]](https://thejuryexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/james-mock-trial-201x130.jpg "Goals of Witness Preparation: From a Trial Consultant’s Point of View")
!["If 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' was remade today, the 'shocking' guest would no longer be a highly accomplished, educated and sophisticated black man (Sidney Poitier) but a highly accomplished, educated and sophisticated atheist."1 "The prisons are probably filled with people who don't have any kind of a spiritual or […]](https://thejuryexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/keene-atheism-definition-201x130.jpg "Panic Over the Unknown: America Hates Atheists")
![I. THE APPLICATION OF RULE 606(b) TO ALLEGATIONS OF JUROR BIAS A jury convicted African-American Roland William Steele of three counts of first-degree murder and related charges after he allegedly killed three Caucasian women. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania later upheld Steele's conviction despite the declaration of a […]](https://thejuryexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Miller2-178x130.jpg "Without Bias: How Attorneys Can Use the Right to Present a Defense to Allow for Jury Impeachment Regarding Juror Racial, Religious, or Other Bias")
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