Ideas are communicated through language. As our culture changes, so does our language. With new ideas we need a new way to communicate them. Every year we add thousands of words to our vocabulary. Lawyers have their own unique culture (for better or worse.) Below is a collection little known terms, new meanings for old phrases, and newly created language to describe our world as attorneys.
The Lexicon
- Anchoring - comparing to something else. Context of the comparison affects the perception (McDonald’s versus Morton’s) What kind of story are your jurors in? (reasonable doubt and presumption of innocence.)
- “Cotion” (n.) = A motion a lawyer copied from someone else, poorly. It is so carelessly done that information (names, dates, times, etc…) from the previous motion are accidentally remain in the new motion (making it a copied motions – a “Cotion”).
- “DuiThink” (n.) = A worldview DUI attorneys encounter in every trial: if a person was drinking, driving and arrested, not only are they probably guilty, but any chemical test result the government has, must be right. This worldview is called – “DuiThink.” Side Notes.
- Emotional Contagion = Here is the Wikipedia explanation.
- Frames = According linguist George Lakoff, a frame is a mental structure that influences your thinking. This influence is usually unconscious. Seth Godin explains that a frame is the mental hook that you put on an idea.
- “Invisible DUI” (n.) = a dui case, where the defense attorney convinces the prosecutor that the state may lose, so they argue you can be DUI but not show it.
- “Juror Math” = the math needed to pick a jury.
- “Legal Intelligence” = The application of emotion and social intelligence skills to the practice of law.
- “Legal Intrapeneur” – a lawyer that changes an existing firm from within, and without asking for permission.
- “Prosecutor Think” = A mindset, by a prosecutor, that says if the the police submitted the charges they must be true, regardless of logic, reason or new information. The prosecutor version of “A True Believer.”
- Persuadable Juror –
- Reframing: Lakoff says reframing “is rethinking.“
- “Robe Call” = When a judge has no idea what the answer is and in a state of panic says to himself: “I better call someone to find out, and don’t want anyone to know that I don’t know, and no matter what the answer is from the friend I call I am going to rule that way, and not tell anyone I am doing it.”
- “Supervisor Call” = When lawyer (usually a prosecutor) tells a judge after a adverse ruling, to reconsider their holding while they call a supervisor, as if the lawyers supervisor is also the judge’s supervisor. The call is sometimes accompanied by visible signs of anxiety such as watery eyes, a flushed face, and even crying.
- “Side Notes” =
- “Ten Dick Rule” = Getting a witness to repeat an embarrassing mistake as many times as possible. Originated after a DUI trial where an officer mistakenly wrote in his report that my client refused all the Field Tests by saying “suck my dick.” See the side notes for a detailed example of the rule in action. Side Notes.
- “Tension Convention” (.n) = when a lawyer (usually a “warm body” attorney) is hired to show up, for another lawyer, in court without being told the shit is going to hit the fan. The other lawyer has given you his ticket to “a tension convention.”
- “True Believer” = An attorney who is blinded by ideology. For example, a defense attorney that believes no one is ever guilty of anything. The defense attorney version of “Prosecutor Think.” These attorneys also tend to believe in most conspiracy theories, Area 51 is where the government hides aliens, and on occasion, Santa Clause.
- “Warm Body Duty” (or “Warm Body Coverage”) = An attorney standing in for another attorney during court where the skill level required is merely that of someone with a warm body.
- Unwritten Jury Instructions = narratives used to influence juror’s preexisting worldviews and frames.
- “Your Honor” + a long pause + a scowl on your face = Asshole. For example, after a what the attorney believes (correctly or not) is a moronic ruling, and then responds with clenched teeth” “I respectfully disagree….Your Honor (i.e. Asshole.)”
- Narrative = A narrative retells the events from a specific view point of a character in a story. The narrator telling the story frames the events from their own world view.