No-Ironbutt Factor - RI Lead Paint Trial

On last Thursday afternoon, Day 13 of the landmark Rhode Island (RI) lead paint trial, it could have just been a random act of two jurors standing in place, for extended periods of time. 

But, I don't think so.  The two-jurors-standing signals the weakness of the plaintiff's presentation tactics and more importantly its evidence, or as we say in communications, content.

Wasn't it obvious that there was no attempt among the jurors to endure or to feign endurance of the long-winded questioning of expert witnesses about seemingly unrelated bits of evidence?  The two culprits inflicting this meandering interrogation were plaintiff attorneys Neil Kelly and Fidelma Fitzpatrick.

For several days prior to Thursday, Mr. Kelly had state expert witness Patricia Nolan, former director of the RI Dept. of Health, on the stand.  I might be projecting my own annoyance/boredom with the irrelevant and repetitive nature of most of that questioning but I might have heard that same puzzlement/frustration in the remarks of Justice Michael Silverstein. 

At the end of all that - and "that" required a true ironbutt to get through - it was announced that because of her current traveling schedule associated with her consulting, Dr. Nolan wouldn't be there for cross-examination until after the long Thanksgiving holiday.  So, all that ironbutt discipline for nothing.  That is, we the ironbutts would not have the immediate opportunity to listen to the other side of the story.  Not in the near future, at least.

If that wasn't enough challenge to any sitter, Ms. Fitzpatrick then began to lead plaintiff expert witness Michael Kosnedt, a medical doctor and expert in toxicology, through a review of samples of the medical literature on lead or paint from the early 1900s (1902, to be exact) to around 1950.  We were in the 1930s when the two jurors not only stood but stayed standing.  (Was this a Rosa Parks-type protest by symbolism?)

To survive I have to sell.  When I pick up any discomfort/glazing-over in the prospect for my communications services (speechwriting, ghostwriting, marketing communications), you bet, I do immediate course correction.

Advice to the plaintiff attorneys: Correct everything about your strategy and tactics, including your presentation ones. 

Advice to defense attorneys: Keep up remaining-on-point and the quick in-and-out presentation approach.