Non Verbal Communication in Law

Chapter-1 Introduction

There are plenty number of definitions that researchers and scholars have used to give definition of nonverbal communication. It consists of all the messages other than words that are used in communication. It consists of all the messages other than words that are used in communication. The symbolic messages which are transferred by means of intonation, tone of voice, vocally produced noises, body posture, body gestures, facial expressions or pauses.

As individual since birth rely on non-verbal means of communication, so the non-verbal behaviour predates non-verbal communication. Even before the sentence is uttered, the listener observes the body of the speaker and try to make sense of the symbolic messages, which helps the listener to interpret the intention behind the communication. There is an assumption that the people using the non-verbal communication they don’t lie thus they believe in non-verbal rather than oral communication.

Communications is more than Verbal. Good communication must be done by Good Communicators. But most of the time Communications are taken as oral and written exchanges between the communicators. The verbal communication account only for a fraction of messages that the people send and receive. The research has found that between the 70 to 90 percent of the communication spectrum is non-verbal.

Although we continually send and receive nonverbal messages, most of us are not fully aware of the ways that we communicate nonverbally. Still we can see that people from every leading professions (Like, Doctors, Lawyers and Politicians) are very good in non verbal communications.

The nonverbal signals serve many functions necessary for effective human interaction. Some of the most important of these are:

a. expressing our identity (e.g., culture, personality, gender, values, etc.);

b. communicating our attitudes and feelings (e.g., positive-negative feelings and feelings of superiority-inferiority, as well as basic emotions such as anger, joy, fear, etc.);

c. creating first impressions of ourselves and stereotyping others;

d. structuring and facilitating the flow of an interaction (e.g., nonverbal actions serve as the "traffic signals" which direct the turn- taking among speakers and listeners);

e. influencing others;

f. assisting in the production and comprehension of speech; and

g. allowing us to engage in deception and to send "mixed" messages (see Burgoon, Buller, & Woodall, 1989 for an extensive analysis of these functions).

In the court room the entire proceedings of a trail subtly affected by non-verbal communication. It is constantly present end being asserted, the lawyers are not aware of its existence, where in the court room gestures and facial expressions are being observed by each individual in the court room.

The Main focus of the law schools are the law and the legal theory. Those Communication skills in the law schools mainly focuses on the arguments and the persuasions that are necessary in the court room.

There are more quantities of communication skills that happens outside the courtroom, which are more essential to lawyers practice.

Chapter-2 Research Methodology

AIM and objective of the study:-

To make analysis of the impact of the non-verbal communication in the law as well as in the legal system.

Hypothesis 1

Nonverbal communication has a greater impact on the legal system and that has a greater influence in the negotiation, judgement delivery system, etc.

Hypothesis 2

Lack of understanding along with ignorance towards effective use of Nonverbal Communication in Indian legal scenario, awareness is present however effectiveness is missing.

Research Methodology used in this topic

In this topic, Doctrinal as well as Non-Doctrinal methodology has been adopted. In Doctrinal methodology, various articles and web journals has been adopted. In Non-Doctrinal methodology the empirical study has been done through questionnaire.

Research Questions

a. Is there any impact of the non-verbal communication in law?

b. Skills of the lawyers to analyse the personality by non-verbal mode of communication?

c. Impact of the non-verbal communication in the court room?

d. How non-verbal communication help in court room proceeding?

e. Relevance of non-verbal communication in professional ethics of the lawyers?

f. Impact of non-verbal communication in judgement delivery system?

g. What are the effects of the cultural traits in non verbal communication?

Topic covered by Samyak Satyaranjan Tripathy

a. Introduction

b. Research Methodology

c. Impact of Non verbal Communication

d. Legal analysis of Non verbal Communication

e. Opinions of Lawyers working in Law Firms

f. Conclusions

In Empirical study, only two responses were got and I was assured by some other Associates but did not got any reply from them. But I got one response orally from one of the associate of M.S. Bodhanwalla and Company(he requested to not to disclose his identity). That has been covered under this topic.

Topic covered by Abhirup Mitra

a. Law and Nonverbal Communication- Modern day perspective

b. Principles of Nonverbal Communication

c. Importance of Nonverbal Communication

d. Comparative study on Verbal and Nonverbal Communication, vis-à-vis Selective Legal systems in the world

e. Conclusion

I tried to bring out many unattended aspects in Nonverbal Communication with a principle aim to cover as many aspects as possible. As there were two researchers