Here are four books every trial lawyer should be familiar with. The first, Words that Work by Frank Luntz is written by the long time adviser to the National Republican party and confidant of Karl Rove. The master of Republican framing has written a book that trial lawyers need to read and contains words trial lawyer need to use.

Don’t Think of An Elephant by George Lakoff is written by the leading U.S. expert on framing. A friend of the Democratic party and plaintiff trial lawyers, Lakoff’s book and his book Metaphors We Live By are must reading for trial lawyers who want to understand the importance of framing to create images in the mind.

Clotaire Rapaille’s book The Culture Code is an important work written for marketing interests but which has direct application to trial work. Rapaille’s studies are too extensive to treat here, but he argues that the great majority of our decision making goes on at a level below our cortex reasoning. He says that we all have certain basic drives which include self preservation and reproduction that account for much of our decision making. He says that all cultures create life long impressions of an emotional nature that are rather uniform across the culture. These "codes" are embedded in our mind and dictate our decision making without our realizing it.

Malcom Gladwell’s book Blink has some very interesting research data and suggests we making decisions instinctively. He argues that 90% of all of our decisions are made at a non thinking level, hence the title Blink.

There is so much being written about how people decide issues that is contrary to our historical learning that we should be keeping up with the latest information about this important subject. —–