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Category: Tactics

 TRIAL CONCEPTS FROM THE RUBY RIDGE CASE

 TRIAL CONCEPTS FROM THE RUBY RIDGE CASE

Ruby Ridge Idaho is the location of an incident in August 1992 where Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and U.S. marshals engaged in an eleven-day armed standoff. It involved self-proclaimed white separatist Randy Weaver, his family, and a friend named Kevin Harris. It took place in an isolated area where the family cabin was located. Weaver’s wife Vicki and his 14-year-old son, Sammy were killed during the siege, as well as a law enforcement officer. Weaver was charged with murder. The…

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PLAINTIFF’S SHOULD ALWAYS START BY ATTACKING THE DEFENDANT

PLAINTIFF’S SHOULD ALWAYS START BY ATTACKING THE DEFENDANT

I’ve written about this before, but I still have plaintiffs lawyers who express doubt about the rule that a plaintiff should always start their case by attacking the defendant. Some years ago Lawyers Weekly published an article by Elaine McArdle about the  research regarding this rule. In the 1990s,trial lawyers Gregory Cusimano and David Wenner investigated the issue.They presented fact patterns to hundreds of focus groups around the country and in that process they observed a consistent pattern: when they…

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APOLOGY & ADMISSION OF LIABILITY

APOLOGY & ADMISSION OF LIABILITY

Insurance companies advise their insureds  in malpractice situations to apologize to the injured person. That’s because their research indicates that a prompt concession of fault with an apology motivates the injured person to either not assert a claim at all or to be willing to compromise more quickly and easily. They have enough confidence in this idea to lobby legislators to adopt statutes that prohibit the introduction into evidence that apology or admission of fault has been made in such cases….

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