As I sort through the materials I’ve accumulated over more than fifty years of law practice I continue to find ideas that might be of interest to others. Nothing profound here, but maybe you’ll find it worth reading. Here are the latest selections. Communication For a lot of years I kept the following as a reminder about all you had to know in conducting a direct examination of a witness or interviewing a client or witness. Rudyard Kipling wrote: “I…
I saw an add by Ken Hardison for PILMMA, a marketing firm for lawyers, that made a whole lot of sense to me if I were advertising. As I thought about it, it occurred to me the same fourteen principles outlined in the advertisement really apply to trials. Here are the principles: 1. Who is your target audience? When we try cases we need to think about who are jurors are and what they want or expect. He says: “research…
We are back from Europe and while suffering from jet leg here are some thoughts you might want to consider. Jurors construct their own story out of the evidence they are given, evaluate that story and then select an outcome that best fits their version of the facts. They apply their own values as well as their perception of the community attitudes in coming to their decision. “Your group’s values are threatened by actions like this. You or your loved…