ABSTRACT

A story may be identified by its elements or by its functions. There are many possible uses for storytelling techniques in the course of investigating, theorizing, and litigating a case. Plot is central to legal storytelling. Researchers have suggested a theory called narrative transportation to describe what happens when listeners or readers are transported into the world of a story. Narrative persuasion is thought to differ from the more familiar version of analytical persuasion because of a difference in the effects of audience involvement - the listener's personal stake in the message. Lawyers know that their real task when they set out to recount the facts of a client's problem, lawsuit, or transaction is to tell a coherent and plausible story. By imposing the narrative logic of a storyline on the facts of a client's situation, the "logic of the story becomes the logic of reality".