Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips

The American Journal of Trial Advocacy is published by the Cumberland school of law, Samford University. I highly recommend the publication for plaintiff trial lawyers. The subscription is a modest $24 per year: Contact them at jtrialad@samford.edu. The summer 2013 issue has an article by Edward D. Ohlaum “Authentic Advocacy: Lawyering with Character.” Some of his observations I thought repeating were these. Aristotle taught that there were three means of effecting persuasion. “The man who is to be in command…

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Edward Burkley and Darshon Anderson published an informative article “Using the Science of Persuasion in the Courtroom” in Persuasion Research. Among the research conclusions they discussed where these. Research showed that if people who are asked to think of reasons to support a position and have difficulty generating ways to do so, they are likely to perceive the idea as a bad idea. Therefore, the authors say, by asking the jury to think of some ways (no more than three…

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I marvel at the gift of words Shakespeare exhibits in his writing. Allow me to take a great deal of liberty with it and apply it to our work as trial lawyers. Let’s start with those limited number of trial lawyers we deal with who never fail to demonstrate a lack of integrity and ethics in their discovery disclosures and general conduct. They soon become known to all of us and we learn they cannot be trusted. Shakespeare’s advice about…

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