ARBITRATION IS A DEFENSE WEAPON

ARBITRATION IS A DEFENSE WEAPON

Why do businesses and corporations want arbitration and not trials? There are a number of reasons, which include some of the following: Lower damage awards No jury & arbitrators are statistically more conservative Elimination of class actions. Most arbitration clauses require individual claims &  bar class or collective actions. This converts one systemic wrong → hundreds of small, uneconomic claims, avoiding massive exposure → scattered, manageable costs. Repeat-player advantage Corporations appear in arbitration repeatedly, are familiar to arbitration providers, and…

Read More Read More

SUMMATION USING JURY INSTRUCTIONS

SUMMATION USING JURY INSTRUCTIONS

One approach to giving a final argument is to structure it around the jury instructions. This approach is based upon the idea that the jury instructions given by the judge represent the law and come from a neutral source. By connecting the argument to the jury instructions, it is suggested that it strengthens the jury’s attitude to the credibility of the lawyer making the argument. This is a very simple outline of that approach, which be revised for your individual…

Read More Read More

GERRY SPENCE JURY SELECTION EXAMPLES

GERRY SPENCE JURY SELECTION EXAMPLES

Gerry Spence and I met a couple of years before he created his Trial Lawyers College in Wyoming. We became friends, and he invited me to be one of the teachers for the first year he started the Trial Lawyers College. Unfortunately, I was involved in a 4-week trial in Oregon and couldn’t attend. However, I was asked by Gerry to teach at the program for the next 20 years. Each summer, I would travel to Dubois, WY, where Thunderbird…

Read More Read More