You Have to Be Ready for Anything When Preparing for Jury Trials

You Have to Be Ready for Anything When Preparing for Jury Trials

Back when I was a young attorney working at another firm preparing for jury trials, I was hungry for courtroom experience. I wanted to try cases. Real ones. In front of actual juries. Preferably without fainting.

As luck would have it, a case had been sitting around waiting for an attorney to take it on. Enter: me, the eager (and slightly overconfident) young associate. I don’t remember every detail of the case now, but I do remember my client, a lovely older woman who had been injured in a car accident. She ended up in the emergency room, followed by physical therapy and visits to her primary care doctor. In other words, a very real case with very real injuries. And I was determined to absolutely nail it. I began preparing for Jury Trials.

I prepped like my legal career depended on it. I outlined every question. I rehearsed. I probably over-rehearsed. This was going to be my moment. I was going to be a Trial Lawyer (capital T, capital L).

The trial starts. Things are going smoothly. Medical providers testify. An eyewitness explains how the other driver caused the crash. I’m feeling good.

Then it’s time.

My client takes the stand.

This is it! The moment where she tells her story and brings the case home.

I start with a few simple, easy questions to get her comfortable.

And then… out of nowhere…

The judge interrupts me.

No objection. No warning. Just jumps right in and starts talking directly to my client.

Now, if you’ve never been in a courtroom, let me translate: judges don’t usually do that for fun. So naturally, I’m standing there thinking, What did I do wrong? Did I miss something? Is this how my big moment ends?

Then the judge asks her a question I will never forget:

“Did you used to dance at the Aragon Ballroom?”

…Excuse me?

At this point, I’m no longer thinking about my carefully crafted questions. I’m thinking, What in the world is happening right now?

The judge proceeds to ask her several more questions. Not about the accident. Not about her injuries.

About dancing. At the Aragon Ballroom. Back in the day.

And just like that, I become invisible.

For what felt like an hour (but was probably 5–10 minutes), it was just the two of them reminiscing—big bands, dancing, good times. A full-on trip down memory lane in the middle of my trial.

Meanwhile, I’m standing in the middle of the courtroom holding my yellow legal pad like a prop, wondering if I should sit down or just slowly fade into the wall.

I glance at the jury. At first, they look just as confused as I feel. But then something interesting happens—they start smiling. A few chuckles. The mood in the room softens.

And that’s when I learned one of the most important lessons in my career of preparing for Jury Trials.

It’s not always about you.

Sometimes, a judge is going to go off-script. Sometimes, something unexpected is going to happen. And sometimes… that unexpected moment actually helps you more than it hurts.

Did it throw off my rhythm? Absolutely.

Did it ruin the case? Not even close.

If anything, it humanized my client. It let the jury see her as a person—not just a name on a lawsuit. And that matters more than any perfectly worded question I had written down.

Jury trials almost never go exactly as planned. You can prepare all you want (and you should), but at some point, you have to roll with whatever comes your way.

Even if that includes an impromptu conversation about dancing at the Aragon Ballroom.

Kevin M. OBrien