Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips

Damage cases involving a plaintiff with medical issues that pre dated the injury are challenging. I believe one important rule involves openess and honesty about the facts. An essential part of persuasion is complete authenticity, sincerity and the trustworthiness of the lawyer. I believe these cases require full disclosure of the pre-existing situation during voir dire, opening statement and trial. The opening statement should continue the same approach of full disclosure. Consider using PowerPoint that summarizes the jury instruction on…

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More than twenty years ago I first taught at the Trial College College created by Gerry Spence and conducted in Wyoming. It was there that I met Dr. John Nolte from Connecticut. He was trained as a psychologist and became involved in the Mareno Institute where he was educated in psychodrama. John was the certified psychodrama conductor at the ranch and was extremely gifted in its use. The lawyer students were immediately introduced to psychodrama and personally experienced it as…

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Tom Wolfe, in his book The Right Stuff, described how military pilots reacted when a fellow pilot was killed during test flights. He wrote: “The other pilots shook their heads and said it was a damned shame, but he should have known better than to wait so long before lowering the flaps.” When another friend was killed after climbing and then diving straight into the bay, they said  “How could anybody fail to check his hose connections? And how could…

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