Checklist: Jury Trust and Credibility

Voir Dire

• Come across as genuinely interested in hearing from jurors. Ask questions that invite them to speak, not questions that set up your argument.

• Show patience and understanding with jurors who disagree with you. The rest of the panel is watching how you treat the ones who push back.
• Identify the most obvious weakness in your case before voir dire and address it directly rather than waiting for opposing counsel to define it for you.
• Surface jurors' concerns openly. When you initiate the uncomfortable conversation, jurors tend to conclude the problem is less significant than they initially assumed.
• Aim to have established credibility by the midpoint of your opening statement. Trust built after that point is harder to earn and less likely to hold.

Confront the Elephant in the Room

• Identify the single concern that jurors will form the moment they hear the case—the instinctive reaction that works against you before you've said a word.

• Name it out loud during voir dire rather than hoping jurors won't notice; avoidance signals weakness, directness signals confidence.
• Create space for jurors to voice their doubts and treat those doubts as legitimate. Dismissing concerns doesn't eliminate them, it just drives them underground.
• Once you've surfaced and acknowledged their concern, show jurors how your case is different from the case they're worried about.

Differentiate Your Case

• Listen for the values and assumptions underlying jurors' concerns, not just the concerns themselves. Those are what your framing needs to address.

• Ask jurors to think through exceptions to their initial assumptions; getting them to generate exceptions themselves is more persuasive than arguing the exception at them.
• Be prepared to adjust your trial themes, opening statement, and overall presentation based on what you learn during jury selection. Predetermined themes that conflict with your jury's perspective will not survive contact with the courtroom.
• Measure your success not by whether jurors agree with you, but by whether they're willing to listen.