S2E31 - Start Persuasion 6 Months Early Or Lose Leverage

We argue that persuasion in high-stakes civil cases starts six to twelve months before trial, not two months out. By testing themes early, mapping story features to legal elements, and owning the language, we guide jurors toward a single coherent narrative they can confidently choose.

• why pretrial-as-collection fails and costs leverage
• jurors as active story builders and gap fillers
• four pillars of story acceptance and how to meet them
• mapping narrative features to legal elements
• early theme testing as risk mitigation, not expense
• story order effects on verdicts and confidence
• memory-based versus online...