Lawyers in general talk too much without focusing their ideas and as a result bore jurors. In trial this can be fatal to your case. Too often we underestimate the power of the words we use to start our communication to the jury whether it is in jury selection or opening statement. When you first stand up to speak to the jury, it is a magic moment in which you have everyone’s full attention for a short time; probably no…
Today I’d like to share with you an actual one page outline I used in opening statement in a very major damage case resulting in a record jury verdict. The case involved a man who contacted a power line with a metal pole he was using while installing a bill board postor sheet. The electrical force knocked him off the platform where was standing to the ground a long distance below. He was badly burned and had to have three…
It may be unpopular and politically incorrect in this age of professional civility, but I believe, if we fulfill our role as advocates, we are very likely going to make enemies. The late Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once wrote about this fact when he said: “You have no enemies you say. Alas my friend the boast is poor Those that mingle in the fray That the brave endure must have made foes. If you have none, Small is the work…