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In this video, we're talking about how to
write an opening statement, which means
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I'm going to be giving you the ten step
formula so you can have the perfect
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opening statement. I know
"bold assertion." Let's see if I can follow
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through. Keep watching...
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Welcome to Law Venture. My name is Jarrett
Stone. Now I'm making this video about
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opening statements because I just
released a mini E-Book, which you can see
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right here. Titled the ten step formula
for the perfect opening statement. This
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is how you can win the jury over without
ever presenting any evidence. Now if
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you're interested in getting the e-book
and getting the download, be sure to look
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in the description, click the link, type
in your email address, it'll get sent
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directly to you. Now what makes this ten
step formula super powerful is that you
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can use it in any opening statement. In
fact, you should use it in all your
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opening statements because it really
doesn't matter the area of law that you
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practice and doesn't matter the case
complexity. If you apply this ten step
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formula, you're going to be well on your way
to winning the jury over before the case
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even begins. So without further ado let's
go ahead and dive into step one. The
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first step is super simple, super
straightforward. And it's mainly a
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formality -- especially in federal court.
But, I recommend you say these magic
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words even if you're in state court
because it makes you look kind of fancy --
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which is the judge is going to ask you
to proceed with your opening statement.
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So you stand up, you go to your starting
point where you're going to address the
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jury, but -- instead of immediately diving
in -- turn to the court. Acknowledge the
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court by saying, "May it please the court."
Turn to opposing counsel. Say, "Counsel." And
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then turn back to the jury and at this
point say, "members of the jury." Now the
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caveat is if you have the burden of
proof to where you're wanting the jury
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to collectively rule in your client's
favor, then you want to have "members of
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the jury." You're planting that
psychological seed to where everyone's
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going start thinking the same way. On the
flipside, if you don't have the burden of
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proof and you want to divide the jury up
and you want to plant, again, that
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psychological seed, then you may want to
just refer to the jury as, "ladies and
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gentlemen of the jury." And then further
direct each part of your open
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statement to individuals. Instead of the
collective jury because that'll begin to
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divide up their thinking. On the flipside,
again, back over to having the burden, you
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may want to take it a step further to
unify people by saying "Members of the
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jury, residents of Travis County." PS shout
out to Austin, Texas." Using the fact that
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the jury members are from the same
County is a great way to bring unity. The
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person sitting in the jury box who knows
they're representing this county also
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knows that the person who's on their
left and is on the right is not a
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stranger. In fact, they're more like a
neighbor and that is a great way to
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bring unity. So whether you have the
burden or you don't, try and start
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planting that seed in this first step.
Now let's go on to step two. So the
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second step is probably my favorite part
of opening statement but at the same
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time it's weirdly enough probably the
most controversial because I know a lot
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of lawyers are about to disagree with
what I'm about to recommend... which is
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that you need to start your opening
statement with being personable and
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being likable. This is going to be
controversial for some because a lot of
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lawyers recommend that you have a
two-minute window in order to capture
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the attention of the jury members and a
tell your story and to win them over in
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two minutes. So they recommend that you
come in, bring the fire, bring the
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explosions, and capture that two-minute
window and win it in two minutes. But,
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jurors are actually really good at
paying attention. Especially whenever you
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consider the fact that whenever you're
making your presentation or your opening
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statement that you're about three feet
away from them. They don't really have
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anything else to focus on. They don't
have a cellphone distracting them. And
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it's not like YouTube where I have to
bring maybe some fire and some
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explosions in order to keep you
entertained in the first two minutes to
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potentially watch a five or ten minute
video. PS, by the way, if you're still
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watching this video *thumbs up*. Given all this, my
recommendation for your opening
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statement whenever you get it started is
to be personable be likeable maybe even
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make a joke. And I know that can be a
little bit out of the norm for most
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people but it's a fantastic way to segue
from your jury selection (or voir dire
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for the fancy people) and to carry that
mood and that tone
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into your opening statement. Hold back on
the fire, hold back on the explosions
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just a little bit because what you need
to have is continuity from jury
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selection to your opening statement. I
talked about this in another video which
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I think will be sliding here or not but
check that out if you have it in that
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video I mainly convey the fact that if
you have this really great jury
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selection and you're able to develop a
bond with the jurors and you're able to
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maybe even develop inside jokes with the
jurors and then you throw that away by
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not keeping that bond going during
opening statement by just bringing the
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fire in the explosions then the jury's
gonna see two very different sides of
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you and what you end up doing is one may
be losing credibility but two you're
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definitely gonna throw away that bond
you develop during jury selection so
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given that just go ahead and just
continue the mood a little bit
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develop that continuity from jury
selection to the beginning of your
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opening statement and then get serious
with step three so this third step is
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what I like to call the tone shift and
I've talked about this in another video
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hopefully that's sliding right now it
may or may not be doing that let's see
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if I figure that out later but with this
tone shift you take it from we're joking
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we're having a good time but
unfortunately what brings us here
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together is something very very serious
and then you start kind of going into
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the facts but this tone shift really
starts making the jury think and more
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important that's when they start paying
attention right you don't really need to
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bring the fire in the explosions in
order to get them to pay attention you
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just need to basically almost ruin the
party and ruin the fun that we're all
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having and the jury starts wondering
okay what's causing this person we
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bonded with for the last 30 minutes or
an hour to start to switch his mood a
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little bit they get curious and then you
start satisfying that curiosity I'm
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moving on step four now with this step
we're gonna be talking about the theme
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and the purpose of the theme is to set
the mood for the entire case this
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going to be the theme that you're gonna
refer to over and over and over and over
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again during trial now you need to take
some time and figure out what's gonna be
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a good theme in fact you need to also be
critical of your theme and figure out
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how the other side can maybe flip your
own theme into something that's
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beneficial to them here's an example if
your theme is about bad choices that's
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kind of vague and it's kind of broad and
the other side can actually flip that to
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say okay but opposing counsel made the
bad choice about doing X Y & Z or the
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other party made the bad choice about
doing a B and C that's something that
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can be flipped very very well if you
just make it a little bit more specific
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say the theme is about gambling right a
lot of people are very very critical of
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somebody who gambles at the expense or
risk of other people now with gambling
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it's a little bit harder to flip because
it's a little bit more of a serious
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theme and it's not as simple as choices
like choices you do every single day
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gambling has this implication of
high-risk high-reward so that's just an
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example off the top of my head but what
you need to do is find a theme that
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works for your case and definitely does
not work for the other side's case and
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all you have to do at this step is just
use a simple sentence saying and this is
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a case about and implement your theme
and then what you do after you've
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implemented your theme go ahead and
transition to this next step step 5
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so at this point you have primed the
jury to be hypercritical and they're
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asking questions they're wondering who
or what has brought everyone here today
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and who are what's causing things to be
so serious what's going on
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if they're asking questions and guess
what you have their attention so you're
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gonna provide the answers to the
questions that you know the jury has and
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in order to do that what you need to do
is to actually start talking about the
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other party's actions you start telling
the story but allowing the jury to be
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critical of the other party what you
don't want to do is start talking about
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to your client in your client story
because the jury like I said they're
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being hypercritical at this point there
pride and you don't want them to start
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basically focusing the Eye of Sauron
Lord of the Rings reference right there
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on your client that's the last thing you
want you don't let them start poking
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holes in your clients story instead just
focus and hone them in on the conducts
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and the actions of the other party so in
order to do that in order to tell that
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story be sure to speak in an active
voice right don't speak in past tense to
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speak actively that'll keep the jury
more engaged be quick
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be short and to the point kind of like
this step now after you're able to do
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that and you tell that story we're
moving on to the next step step six
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we're talking about the burden of proof
so at this point we're coming from
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here's what the other party did
incorrectly and here's how we can either
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satisfy or how the other party can't
satisfy their burden and if you
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basically had a really good jury
selection a really good forward dier and
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you were able to already talk about the
burden of proof and I recommend with
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opening statement be short be succinct
and if you've already talked about the
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burden of proof during jury selection
just go ahead and touch on it for maybe
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30 seconds just have a very brief
overlay how those facts that you just
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told about the other party's actions
either satisfy or don't satisfy the
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burden and then move on to the next step
so if you weren't able to talk about the
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burden during jury selection now's the
time to do so and be sure to make it
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make sense
it can be kind of this abstract esoteric
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line of thinking use examples make it
more concrete and really drive home the
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fact that it either can or can't be
satisfied based on the other party's
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actions in the previous step if you're
able to do that and kind of interweave
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it then you move on to the next step so
with step seven you're providing an
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answer to the question that the jury has
and you know they have they just heard
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the burden of proof they understood it
and they're wondering okay how is this
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lawyer going to satisfy the burden of
proof or how's the other side not going
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to satisfy it so you're going to answer
that with step 7 by talking about the
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anticipated evidence the evidence that
you expect to come
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for Thor come to light during the course
of trial so you can talk about the
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testimony the witnesses or the exhibits
that will be presented and shown to the
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jury here's a warning though and hope
flashing lights are going off right now
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if you aren't comfortable or if you
aren't confident that certain testimony
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or certain exhibits may not come in then
don't mention them last thing you want
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to do is over promise and under deliver
on what you're going to present because
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that'll end up costing you credibility
and credibility is king in the courtroom
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so let's pivot a little bit because you
also want to talk about the weaknesses
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of your case I promise you the other
side can't wait to start talking about
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them but at the same time if you're able
to talk about them on your terms that
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can take a lot of the sting out of bad
facts or bad witnesses let's say there's
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a document you have the burden of proof
and you're trying to satisfy that burden
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there's a document that's missing but
what you can do is explain to the jury
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that yeah it would be great if we had
this document it'd be fantastic it would
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make things super simple but we don't
have it but we don't actually need it in
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fact we have this witness we have that
witness we have this document we have
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this document all of that satisfies the
burden of proof you can do the same
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thing with witnesses if you know a
witness just simply isn't going to play
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well but the witness is an eyewitness
who saw maybe a car wreck or he saw a
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crime you can maybe take the sting out
of the fact that okay we can't pick the
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witnesses and we can't pick who ends up
seeing a crime or a car wreck but he's
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going to come up here and he's gonna
testify to seeing X Y & Z and doing that
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allows the jury to be prepared mentally
for that and it also puts him
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perspective to the jury of like okay
yeah it makes sense they don't really
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need that document I wish they would
have had it and make my job easier but
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they're right I understand the burden
and they don't need it on the flip side
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even if you don't have the burden you
need to address bad facts and you need
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to explain to the jury that yes these
witnesses will say this or yes these
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documents will say that but even with
all of that evidence the other side is
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not going to be able to satisfy their
burden and
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need XY and Z and so you can address the
bad facts and then spin it in your favor
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and then this takes us to the next step
so we're at step 8 now and at this point
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we have primed the jury to be critical
of the other party's actions you've also
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set the theme of the entire case so the
scene is set and the jury understands
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the burden of proof and knows the
anticipated evidence that's going to be
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presented and you've also taken the
sting out of any bad facts at this point
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after you've done all of that now you're
gonna talk about your client you may
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want to end step 7 by saying also you're
gonna hear from my client who's gonna
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take the stand and he or she is gonna
tell his or her story and with that
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story you're gonna hear yada yada yada
that takes you to step 8 but step eight
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you want to talk about how the other
parties conduct and actions have
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negatively affected your client again
speak an active voice keep it very
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engaging but your client is something
wrong
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own up to it address it but also maybe
use passive voice at that point to where
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maybe the jury gives your client a
little bit more slack now after you've
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told this story let's proceed to the
next step step 9
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so with this ninth step the second to
last step let's call like it is
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nobody likes a complainer especially the
jury they can find it very off-putting
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so if you were to end on step eight
which is basically your client story of
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how your client has been negatively
affected then your client runs the risk
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of coming off as a complainer and that's
not good
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that's when step nine comes into play
which is to paint your client in the
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picture of basically the comeback kid
overcoming these negative situations and
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coming out better and stronger than ever
before and what that'll do is that'll
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give your client a ton of credibility
before your client even takes the stand
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if you can do that that means you're on
your way to the perfect opening
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statement and you just have one step
left step 10
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we're at the final step step team we're
here we've made it for those still
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watching now my recommendation in order
to end with a perfect opening statement
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is to end with what I like to call the
soft pitch a lot of lawyers default to
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the same simple request of just rule in
my clients favor but the jury at this
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point is primed they know their jobs
they know there's a burden of proof they
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know evidence has to be presented so
it's a really big ask to go ahead and
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ask the jury during opening before any
evidence has been presented to rule in
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your clients favor
what I don't want you to do is to ruin
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this perfect opening statement that
you've accomplished through the first
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nine steps by just over asking
with stepped in instead you need to do
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this soft pitch you need to make it very
clear to the jury that it would be
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unfair for you to ask the jury to rule
in your clients favor but you know that
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after they see the evidence that you
talked about after they've determined
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the credibility of the witnesses after
you've done a closing argument and
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you've put a bow on everything after all
of that there's gonna be one simple
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decision and that's the rule in your
clients favor but you're not gonna ask
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that until the jury is presented with
all of that evidence and that evidence
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will make it super clear and they'll be
super comfortable ruling in your clients
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favor a little bit of a ramble but you
get the gist of it if you have any
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questions about this be sure to leave a
comment below I'd be happy to answer it
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for my go-getters who want to take their
courtroom skills to the next level be
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sure to check out trial ad Academy the
links in the description it's an online
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course that I put together that's gonna
take your trial skills to the next level
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and if you made it this far and you
haven't given this video a thumbs up
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come on let's get on it and also don't
forget to subscribe I'll see you all in
00:17:20
the next video
