Latest Posts › Trial Attorneys

Share:

Fish for a Good Cause Challenge

In my work, I get to watch many attorneys go through the practical rituals of jury selection. A big part of the job is looking for, setting up, and executing challenges for cause when there are reasons to doubt potential...more

Know the Other Side’s Three Goals for Your Deposition

So, your deposition has been scheduled, and you’re just starting to wrap your head around what is in store for you. Your lawyer has already stressed that you are not in the driver’s seat at this stage: The deposition is the...more

The Civil Jury Trial: Treat the Crisis as an Opportunity

The American civil jury trial was on life support before the pandemic. For a generation at least, the trend has been toward a reduced scope for a jury’s decision, an expansion in the power of judges to resolve things in...more

Courts: Requiring Vaccines Will Influence the Jury Pool. Require Them Anyway

With mounting frustration over the duration and human cost of the Coronavirus pandemic, along with the sluggish pace of vaccinations in many parts of the country, President Joe Biden, this past week, threw down the gauntlet...more

Presenters, Don’t Be Eclipsed By Your Screen

For more than a year, many of us have been presenting to audiences by Zoom or other web-conferencing platforms rather than presenting in person. Largely, the experience has lived up to the challenge, convincing many in the...more

Ask Your Factfinders to Participate in Their Own Persuasion

To many trial-watchers, a key moment in the recent trial of former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, for the murder of George Floyd, came during the testimony of Dr. Martin Tobin. This Chicago pulmonary physician, in...more

Note the Challenges of a Black Female Advocate: Kamala Harris’ Debate Dilemma

Well, Wednesday’s Vice Presidential debate was more civil than the top-of-the-card match last week. It offered a more substantive comparison of positions, with the candidates on both sides looking mature, reasonable, and even...more

Don’t Assume a Civil Zoom Trial Creates Reversible Error

Here is a scenario that might be playing out in various forms around the country: A judge looks at her increasingly crowded docket during the coronavirus pandemic and thinks, “Well, I’m doing professional meetings on Zoom...more

Witnesses: Answer Both the Language of the Question and Its Implication

When preparing a witness, there can sometimes be a strong impulse to say, “Just answer the question.” That impulse comes from an appropriate desire to keep things simple, and to keep the witness from wandering or waffling....more

Med-Mal Defendants: You Want a Jury of Educated Legal Skeptics

For trial lawyers, there is a great deal of lore on the kinds of jurors you would want for particular cases. While some attorneys will focus on traits like gender, age, or occupation, the smarter course, in my view, is to...more

Expect Attorney Resistance to Online Trial Innovations

Across the country, restaurants are changing what it means to be a restaurant, movie theaters are changing what it means to be a movie theater, and conferences are changing what it means to be a conference. So maybe it’s...more

Scientific Testimony: Don’t Rely on Shortcuts

As a twice-weekly blog writer focusing on the social science of legal persuasion, I am thankful that during this medical emergency, the research has kept coming. Even as restaurants, bars, beaches, and schools have been shut...more

Prime Your Jurors on the Pandemic, Make Them More Conservative

Take a moment and visualize what your next in-person jury trial might look like. The jurors arrive at the courthouse and have their temperature checked while being asked whether they or anyone in their household have been...more

Prepare for the COVID Reptile

Might a fear-based strategy have greater purchase in the present pandemic climate? People are certainly feeling scared and vulnerable these days. Even as states begin to relax the coronavirus stay-at-home restrictions, the...more

Before Your Next Web-Conference, Fix Your Camera Position

If you’re like me, you have been clicking into a ton of web-conferences lately. That’s true of the whole business world, but I think the legal workplace is a natural fit for web conferencing. After all, it is a field that is...more

Consider COVID Attitude Changes, Part 5: Conspiracy Theories

The Coronavirus is exaggerated, the fatality numbers are being cooked, and the media is just hyping the crisis for political reasons. The treatments are being kept from us, and the quarantine is just a dry run for an upcoming...more

Learn from Governor Cuomo’s Press Briefings

The state of New York is one of the biggest epicenters for the coronavirus illness in the United States. What has become a ritual within many states, and at the White House level as well, is the “Daily Briefing.” All of the...more

Take Care in Settling During a Crisis

Those of us who work in trial preparation and case assessment are in a remarkable new reality as trials across the country are on indefinite hold. Unlike some past natural disasters and economic disruptions, the one is not...more

Adapt to Remote Communication (Including Testimony)

Okay, show of hands: Two weeks ago, how many of you were familiar with Zoom, Webex, GotoMeeting, and/or MS Teams? And how many of you are familiar with them today? These tools for multi-party videoconferencing over the...more

Understand Narrative: Why People Watch Disaster Movies During a Disaster

Most of us are now entering our second week, or longer, of isolation to maintain social distance, limit transmission, and help “flatten the curve” of the current Coronavirus pandemic. For lawyers, of course, that generally...more

Keep Learning While Your Case Is in Limbo: Seven Ways to Use the Pause

One after another, like dominos, court systems are shutting down or moving to drastic restrictions. In the process, court dates are being pulled and cases are moving into limbo. As that happens to your own once trial-bound...more

Expect Some “Terror Management” in any Juries that are Still Going to Court

As the Coronavirus spreads, and mock trials are being rescheduled, many courts are restricting operations or shutting down completely, and people are rapidly adapting to a new normal of restricted events and “social...more

Use B.A.T.A. to Get Better

The art of training legal advocates has a long and honorable history. For example, the Socratic method used in law school is still an unbeatable way to teach critical thinking. But what about trial advocacy? On that score,...more

Trial Lawyers, Watch how Americans Watch the Impeachment Process

It looks like we are heading into another one of those times, like the OJ or Casey Anthony trials, when all of the nation’s attention will be fixated on an interesting and high-stakes legal process. As the impeachment inquiry...more

Fight Your Stage Fright by Reframing

Since it’s Halloween, let’s consider a frightful topic. Experienced trial lawyers usually get past their stage fright early on, and even come to relish the idea of standing in front of a jury, or most any audience. But...more

27 Results
 / 
View per page
Page: of 2

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
- hide
- hide