It is not very often in our normal practice we are called upon to perpetuate the testimony of a client who will likely not survive to trial. In cases of mesothelioma it tragically is the case, but on occasion in a normal tort practice it can be necessary. I advised a friend recently in a case where perpetuation was necessary and here’s what I advised. The approach you use depends almost entirely on the circumstances involving the client and the…
An article written by James W. McElhaney in 2004 was recently called to my attention. McElhaney is a wonderful teacher of solid trial techniques and a long time writer for the ABA Journal about communication in trial. This article was titled “No Time to Waste” and was published in the Journal at: http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/no time_to_waste In writing about opening statement McElhaney writes about “the golden moment” which he says is the first 30 seconds you have when you first begin to speak on…
I’ve written about the writings of George Lakoff many times including this post: https://plaintifftriallawyertips.com/george-lakoffs-the-political-mind Lakoff is a retired UC Berkeley professor and author of many publications on linguistics and communication. He has been involved in eleven books and lectured widely. Lakoff maintains Trump is a super salesman and predicted he would win the election. He was interviewed about this recently and a friend circulated it. You can find it in: http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/05/02/berkeley-author-george-lakoff-says-dont-underestimate-trump/ In the interview he reminds us about communication principles each…