I’m leaving on Sunday for Wyoming where, each year since it’s founding, I have participated as a speaker and helper. Gerry Spence and I have been friends for almost thirty years and of all his accomplishments this College is one of the best. Even though I go there as some kind of expert, I always leave more humble then when I arrived with the realization I have benefited far more by my being there then the students did from me….
"Just the facts, Ma’am" – Sergeant Joe Friday in Dragnet, a popular television program in the nineteen fifties Examining witnesses looks easy on television and in the movies. Whether direct or cross examination, it is always very brief, entertaining and successful. It looks so easy, until you do it in a court room with a real live witness. Your own client can become your worst witness or your expert lose all credibility. Your carefully prepared cross examination can become an…
I’ve just finished the book How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer and it has information that should be of interest to trial lawyers. Here are some passages from the book. I’ve preached the importance of avoiding the spiral of nervousness leading to self study and then focusing only on ourself doing what we are doing instead ofthe communication you want to deliver. The result is a poor performance. Experience allows us to conduct ourselves without thinking about what we are…