Podcast - Show and Tell
In this episode of "The Trial Lawyer's Handbook" podcast series, litigation attorney Dan Small makes the case for "show and tell" in the courtroom. As he contends, jurors do not learn best by listening alone, so powerful demonstratives are essential, especially in complex financial cases. Drawing on the Anzalone money laundering trial, he explains how a simple poster depicting a web tracing $100,000 in cash split into 12 sub‑$10,000 checks clarified the scheme better than words ever could and kept the jury focused on the issues at play. The takeaway: Keep visuals clear, memorable and ever‑present. Ears to listen, eyes to see, hands to hold.
Listen to more episodes of The Trial Lawyer's Handbook here.
This podcast episode was adapted from Mr. Small's book Lessons Learned from a Life on Trial: Landmark Cases from a Veteran Litigator and What They Can Teach Trial Lawyers.
Dan Small: If I asked you to sit in a chair, listen and say nothing at all for six minutes, you'd think, "Oh, that's like time out. Punishment for a child." If I said 60 minutes, you'd think, "Well, that's like a boring lecture in school." If I said six hours, you'd think, "He's crazy. No way can I do that. No way will I do that." And yet, that is exactly what we ask normal people to do to fulfill one of their most important civic duties: jury service. Sit in a chair in the jury box for six hours or more, say nothing and listen, then make important decisions on people's finances, future and freedom. Any good teacher knows that students at any age do not learn best by using only their ears. The same principle applies in the courtroom. At trial, a jury learns best by using as many senses as possible, including:
- ears to listen
- eyes to see
- hands to hold
We worked on this in the Anzalone case, the money laundering structuring trial that I've been talking about the last couple episodes. What would be the most effective way to help Juror No. 6 understand that Anzalone was structuring to evade the law with his bank transactions? $100,000 cash, split up into 12 checks all under $10,000 to avoid the CTR currency transaction reporting requirement.
As I prepared to argue the case, I was drawn to the famous quote over 200 years ago from the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." I realized that's what we had here. We had a web of deceit. So how do you show that graphically?
We made a huge poster board. On the left was a picture of a bag of cash with "$100,000" written on it. The lines diverged out from the bag to a middle column of images of the 12 cashier's checks, then went out from there, from those 12 checks, and reconverged back on a single pot of money on the right, with the name of the investment firm in the account in the name of the mayor's mother, where they were all deposited. It really looked like a huge spider's web. We put it up on an easel, and I stood in front of it to give my opening statement. We referred back to it later in the closing argument, saying, "The web is obvious."
And it worked. It was effective. The jury was clearly focused on it, and it helped to make the scheme much clearer.
We as trial lawyers should always remember the importance — and the power — of good demonstratives. They don't have to be complicated or fancy. In fact, the more complicated and fancy they are, often the less effective they are. They have to be clear and powerful.
And, by the way, always be aware of demonstratives when you're in the courtroom. In the Anzalone trial, the otherwise very good defense counsel was so focused on giving her opening that she didn't realize that my big beautiful demonstrative was still up on the easel. I hadn't taken it down, and they neglected to do so. It remained up throughout their opening statement, and I saw the jury looking at our web of deceit at various times during the defense opening.
Ears to listen, eyes to see, hands to hold. Show and tell.