8.
“This was told to me by a legendary trial lawyer in my area. I probably have some of the details wrong, but here is the gist: It was a personal injury case against the manufacturer of an industrial fan. It was supposed to be child safe, but a kid got their fingers chopped off. The manufacturer was claiming that the plaintiff was only injured because the fan had been modified from its original condition. The defense lawyers had a fan that was straight from the manufacturer. They brought in an expert and, on direct order, had him explain how it would be impossible for this kid or anyone else to hurt themselves. The idea was that the guard mechanism would have prevented people’s fingers from getting too close to the blades. He was a well-qualified witness and gave very compelling testimony on direct exam.”
“Unbeknownst to the defense lawyers or judge, the plaintiff lawyer had brought a very long extension cord and plugged in the “perfectly safe” fan. On cross-examination, he went over the expert’s theories and had him say unequivocally that it is impossible for someone to injure their fingers on this fan if it is unmodified. The plaintiff’s lawyer then walked all the way across the courtroom, turned on the fan as high as it would go, and began walking it towards the expert. It was loud, so he had to kind of shout over it. He definitely had the jury’s full attention!
He gets right up to the witness and starts in on him, still half yelling due to the noise. “Show us; stick your fingers in!” “No!” “Come on, stick your fingers in!” “I don’t want to do that!” The other side is jumping up to object, but the plaintiff lawyer is two inches from the expert yelling for him to stick his fingers in. The expert is looking terrified and shrinking away from the fan. The jury came back in favor of the plaintiff.
It’s my favorite example of “show, don’t tell”!
