
A Second Chance - mighty-fine
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/09/24/jeffrey-masson-trial-second-chance/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29
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dougmwne
A nice read and a good reminder that presentation and knowing your audience
counts for a lot, in court as well as the workplace. It's not the facts or
your deliverables, but the way in which you sell them to others.

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j605
In this case,I felt it was only needed because of having jury trials. I had
the same takeaway that is useful in other places as you. For example, my boss
presented a feature that I had worked on better than how I would have done it.

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sulam
A judge is a jury of one. They may be better trained to rely on evidence, but
they are clearly also human and affected by other factors. For evidence of
this, I only need to refer to the well-cited study showing that parole judges
were significantly more lenient at the start of the day and after their lunch
break.

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ThrowawayR2
Wasn't that debunked a while ago?
[https://www.pnas.org/content/108/42/E833.long](https://www.pnas.org/content/108/42/E833.long)

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sulam
Interesting, I haven't read that.

However, I really think it's a stretch to assume that judge's are immune to
presentation style.

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082349872349872
IMX (albeit very limited) in code[1] jurisdictions, judges do most of their
work by correspondence. They direct the proceedings in writing, and the
lawyers respond in writing.

Bonus common law track:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBM82Ju2kJU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBM82Ju2kJU)

[1] compare "what have the Romans ever done for us?"

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ikeboy
The article makes it sound like the lawyer botched the first trial, which is
mildly surprising given that it was paid for by insurance with a strong motive
to win.

You should know before trial exactly how a witness will answer all questions.
It doesn't sound like there were any surprise questions, they just didn't
prepare the witness well enough for the first trial.

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j605
Can the URL be cleaned up :)

