Looking backward to move forward with your defense: using history to overcome jurors' misunderstandings about science

History -- as shared through carefully selected and crafted stories -- provides one way through which defense counsel and their experts can improve their odds of convincing jurors to pierce simplistic reasoning. Stories about how things "used to be" and the ways in which scientists discovered the errors of their own may particularly help debunk the ways in which jurors may be tempted to view scientific evidence. Section I of this paper discusses the importance of recognizing and openly addressing jurors' misunderstandings about science and medicine. Section II examines why historical examples of fallacious reasoning provide a promising tool for identifying the errors undermining opinions offered by plaintiffs' experts, educating jurors about the proper means of evaluating scientific and medical evidence, and humanizing defense witnesses. Section III discusses historical examples of fallacious reasoning that defense attorneys can couple with stories to reveal the weaknesses in plaintiffs' scientific or medical evidence.