by: Dr. Ken Broda Bahm
Chances are you’ve now heard of “Twitter” in which groups of online friends stay in touch by frequently sending short – 140 character – electronic answers to the question “what are you doing now?” Twitter leapt into the legal consciousness mainly because some users started sending “tweets” reading something like, “I’m sitting on a jury..” or “we’re about to reach a verdict!” As I wrote this essay, at least 15 individuals were tweeting during their jury duty in various parts of the country.
But the need to discourage this kind of juror broadcasting isn’t the only relevance that Twitter holds for the trial lawyer. The other point of relevance is the size of the message itself.
Why 140 characters? While there is a boring technical answer to that question (relating to SMS message length), the more important aspect of the question is why such a limited format would be so popular in the first place. In an age in which we are awash in cheap and plentiful digital information, wouldn’t the service be more successful if it allowed unlimited messages? Well, the cynical might say that we already have that (it is called email… and blogs…and, of course, telephone calls). With all those options, why would a service that permits only 140 characters attract so many users (6 million and climbing)? As one twitter-evangelist describes it, “140 characters is a true bite sized chunk of information making it easy to consume and create –ideal for rapid sharing of ideas.” The length itself is a large part of what makes it easy, accessible, and popular.
So, the message for trial attorneys? As complex as your case is, longer isn’t always better. I recently spoke with an attorney about possibly leaving one complex issue out of an opening that was already tipping the scales of over an hour. His response was, “but I fought so hard to develop that issue and get it in, I feel like I have to use it.” This may be a common part of the psychology: discovery forces attorneys to work extremely hard for every fact, and as a result, everything starts to feel terribly important. But the better course is to remember twitter and give jurors your message in the quickest way possible. You can explain your case in an hour, or you could explain it in 15 minutes. Or you could, at least initially, explain it in 140 characters.
(Image by Sugarpacketchad at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sugarpacketchad/3042365234/ )