Back to basics
When I was working on our last trial in Georgetown, I found myself struggling with the story. There was no clear story that was emerging, as I read through the incident reports, the witness statements, and the information that my investigator had brought to me, what I found was a mess of conflicting statements and several different stories.
Some witnesses were lying. Some were telling the truth. Many were telling part of the truth and lying where it suited them, or where it would help their own self-interest. I considered that I would tell the story of how there was no consistent story from these people, that each would say whatever was most likely to help himself or herself on the stand. How each would contradict the other and have something different to say about the events relevant to the case.
I struggled with this for a few days as I was preparing for trial, and it bothered me. Then I realized what the problem was – the story that I needed to be telling was my client’s story and no-one else’s. His account was the only one that had been consistent from day one, had never changed and had never been shaken by the other witnesses. I realized that I had to go back to the basics and that I had forgotten what may be the most important thing – I had to “crawl into my client’s hide,” see the case from his point of view, and I had to tell his story to the jury.
When I realized what the problem was, everything fell into place for me. When I stood up to give my opening statement, I walked to the jury box in my client’s shoes, and I told his story. As each witness took the stand, I impeached them with their inconsistencies and I impeached them with their prior inconsistent statements, I showed the jury how they were each lying about different aspects of the case to help themselves, but most importantly, I told my client’s story, from my client’s perspective, through each of the witnesses.
Today I was helping another attorney in my office prepare for a trial that is starting tomorrow, in Georgetown again, and as we were trying to find the story I had to remember again whose story it is that we are telling.
In every case, civil or criminal, we must begin our trial preparation from the perspective of our client – it is their trial, after all.
