To be or not to be emotional during trial

The substantiation of facts and evidences by the participants of a trial is a set of not only logical arguments, but also oratorical skills. The issue of legal argumentation, its methods and meaning is widely considered by scientists.

In this project, we propose to answer the question whether the lawyer’s usage of oratorical techniques and non-verbal communication skills affect the results of decision-making. The project consists of two research stages. At the first stage, professional judges and lay judges will be invited to the staged court session.

The survey and the obtained results of the experiment will establish whether oratorical techniques of lawyers affect the level of empathy, information perception and decision-making by judges and lay judges.

Since oral presentation skills are an important part of the profession for a lawyer, the second part of the study proposes to indicate how well advanced level students are prepared for this.

The conducted survey will help to navigate the most common anxieties, perhaps this will also draw attention to the prospects for the development of soft skills.