Framing issues in trials
Karl Rove brought to perfection for the Bush administration the framing of actions in a way they would be receptive. For example "The Clean Air Act" allowed businesses to pollute. The "Healthy Forest Act" allowed the logging industry to clear cut indiscriminately. The proposed "Clean Ocean Act" would allow free oil drilling with the potential to pollute our waters. George Lakoff, professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, has written extensively about framing and metaphors. We know, as trial lawyers, the importance of how we frame our case and the issues in our case. The way we present them and label them has a great deal to do with their acceptance.