Jury consultants have been a staple of litigation prep and courtrooms for decades. Regardless of your case or jurisdiction, you can now select from scores of specialists in every shade of psychology and the law who promise to help you choose the best possible jury for your trial. You can study articles on topics as narrow as how to flush out the juror who won’t stay off the Internet at trial or how jurors react to different camera angles at deposition.

With all this advice and expertise on juror selection and behavior, there has, historically, been scant intelligence on the one person with the single greatest impact on a trial:

The judge.

If Google is any indication, it seems nearly every attorney wants to improve in the courtroom.

Plug in the term “trial practice tips” and Google returns “about 11 million results.”

A search for “better trial practice” throws 20.8 million entries back to you.

“Cross examination techniques?” A whopping 5 million results.

Even something much more specific, “medical malpractice themes,” for example, delivers 131,000 pages.

These sites run the gamut of quality and relevance: from bar association-sponsored seminars featuring the best attorneys in the country to landing pages hawking poorly edited ebooks.

There are three truths about expert testimony.

The first, which first-time jurors discover to their dismay: expert testimony isn’t like what they see on their favorite TV legal dramas. Real testimony is long—running hours to days—and filled with complex jargon and mind-numbing data that turns into white noise when delivered by the wrong witness.

The second truth, which dismays attorneys and their clients: expert testimony is expensive, costing thousands of dollars a day at trial and up to seven figures over the course of a long, complex case.

But the third truth is the most critical: expert testimony is the pivot on which many trials turn.

Before the advent of trial video, attorneys looking for pre-trial intelligence on how opposing attorneys worked the courtroom had two options: watch the opposition in person at another trial or glean information from colleagues that faced them. 

Neither alternative provided a very good solution.

Better trial practice clinics and CLE seminars have spread the word about effective closing argument tactics and techniques. Most attorneys today use some sort of visual aid, from posterboard to computer simulation during their closing, for example, giving jurors a clearer summation of a case. 

But the difference between a workmanlike summation and a closing that compels a jury is the way in which these tactics and techniques are used. The tips below, as shown by three of the country's top trial lawyers, can help seal a verdict in your favor.