Class Presentations

I still definitely agree with Sherwin's idea of legal storytelling in "When Law Goes Pop". He illustrated how persuasive storytelling in the courtroom is, especially when examples from popular media are brought in. As a juror, it made it more difficult for me to decide against the people whom the presenters told the stories about. In each situation it was hard not to feel bad for the people that were made out to be the victims. For the Mcdonalds case I was drawn to the sad stories of the victims, and combined with the astounding statistics of McDonalds' nutrition, I chose the side of the portrayed victims. In the insurance company case I chose the side that the group did not present, but this again, was because when I thought about the other side it appealed to me emotionally, and I also rationalized my decision by thinking out the factual information involved. In the affirmative action case I also sided against the victim in the situation, but this time my decision was based almost completely on the statistic about Stanford University and how the implementation of affirmative action completely backfired. But, even though this statistic influenced me the most, I think it was because it not only appealed to me logically but it also appealed to me emotionally.

As we learned from the episode of Law and Order this week, when lawyers successfully pull the heart strings of jurors by displaying information in a story, they try to make the jury feel empathetic for their client, usually by making their client out to be a victim. This supports what we learned in "When Law Goes Pop", that appealing to the jury in an emotional way rather than a factual way can "tip the scale" for a jury. But, when I looked back on my observations on the presentations, I found that there was a trend on what swayed my opinion in each. After each presentation I wrote in some form that statistics and the storyline helped me decide which side to take. Instead of only paying attention to the pathos appeal, I was also strongly influenced by the logos in each situation. Although some of the statistics were one sided, it was hard not to pay attention to them once I heard them. The statistics helped me rationalize my decision, but knowing the story behind each statistic and presentation, made the arguments even stronger. So, a mix between the two is what really convinced me in each case.