Categories: BlogCar AccidentsConstruction AccidentsGeneralMotorcycle AccidentsPersonal Injury

Our Accident Attorney in Orange Discusses Sympathy and Anger

“Tort reform” supporters will have you believe that appealing to jurors’ sympathy or anger will help injured plaintiffs. An accident attorney in Orange will not invoke these emotions when litigating personal injury lawsuits because it generally does not work. It may actually work against you.

Sympathy

Trying to gain the sympathy of jurors will not inspire the majority of them to lean in your favor. Jurors can be callous or indifferent. Having not experienced the same plight as the plaintiff, it can be difficult to imagine. Moreover, Judges usually instruct jurors that they should be disregarding sympathy since cases should not be decided on emotions, but rather on facts. If jurors believe you are trying to win your case by appealing to their sympathy, they may become hostile, resentful, or otherwise negatively biased. During jury deliberations, these jurors may utilize the defense’s arguments to rebut any sympathetic arguments. Thus, an experienced accident attorney in Orange knows what motivates jurors and will articulate to them the full extent of damages the plaintiff incurred.

Anger

Anger may be a better motivator for jurors than sympathy, but it is typically ineffective since jurors perceive that you are angry, which may come across as disingenuous. Some jurors may even perceive it as a personal attack on them. Anger is a sensation, not an ethical principle; it is transitory, not permanent. By attaching a positive value, an ethical principle the juror personally believes in and perceives is worth fighting for, jurors will feel obliged to fight for you.

If the jurors themselves get angry, anger becomes a more powerful tool. An accident lawyer in Orange understands that he or she must build the case until jurors feel angry subconsciously without being ordered.