Thinking styles and your jury
http://trialinsights.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/thinking-styles-and-your-jury/
More often than not, voir dire focuses on uncovering biases in jurors so that counsel can present their case to a jury that is willing to listen at a minimum. This is appropriate but leaves out an important consideration: thinking styles. Beyond the basic “visual or auditory†learning that has been addressed with using visual aids in the courtroom, how does each juror receive and process the information counsel gives them? How do they organize their thoughts? Are they even capable of working in groups or are they better at making decisions alone? Although voir dire is generally limited in scope, we don’t need to rely solely on voir dire to appeal to a wider audience at trial if we have a better understanding of the types of thinkers out there.
For the purposes of this article, I will focus on the three primary thinking styles and how they may affect how a juror receives information and applies that in the context of a small group setting. Later articles will address the other styles.
