re: Lawyers in: Practice what you really enjoy or what makes you money?

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you have to have the ideological bent that the little guy is always right amd just, and large corporations are categorically evil and deserve punishment.

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In their book, Reptile: The 2009 Manual of the Plaintiff’s Revolution, authors Don C. Keenan and David Ball advocate persuading jurors by appealing to their “reptile brains,” the “oldest” part of the brain and the part responsible for primitive survival instincts. In their books, videos, and seminars, Keenan and Ball advise plaintiff attorneys to demonstrate to jurors the immediate danger posed by the actions of defendants because, as they put it, “when the reptile sees a survival danger, even a small one, she protects her genes by impelling the juror to protect herself and the community.”

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The plaintiff Reptile Strategy aims to influence jury decision-making by appealing to the reptilian complex of jurors’ brains. That is, plaintiff counsel uses tactics to activate jurors’ survival instincts in hopes that they will make decisions based on instinct (i.e., fear) rather than logic and reasoning. While there are several tactics that Keenan and Ball recommend, the keystone of their strategy is to focus on danger and community safety.

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Establish Danger to Community. One of the most important concepts of the Reptile Approach is the concept of the “Safety Rule.” A safety rule is a universal principle of how people should behave (e.g., a doctor must not needlessly endanger a patient). A plaintiff attorney who is using the Reptile Approach will point out to jurors a general safety rule, get defense witnesses to agree with the rule, demonstrate to jurors how the defendant broke the safety rule and suggest that breaking the rule put the entire “community” at risk, thereby “awakening the reptile brain” in the juror. Keenan and Ball illustrate this concept with the phrase “Safety Rule + Danger = Reptile.”

Jury Has the Power to Improve the Community’s Safety. Showing the danger is only the first step. The second step is convincing jurors that they have the power to reduce or eliminate the danger. In fact, another aspect of the reptile strategy is convincing jurors that they are the only ones with that power, and that they should exercise that power by finding in favor of the plaintiff and awarding a large amount of monetary damages. In essence, the Reptile Approach subtly suggests to jurors that they should award compensatory damages to punish the defendant and deter others. Attorneys using this strategy may even suggest that without a “proper” verdict and an “appropriate” punishment, the danger to the community will actually be increased.

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