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Direct examination – make it interesting

Direct examination – make it interesting

"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…

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How we decide

How we decide

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…

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Thoughts while traveling

Thoughts while traveling

I am in Madeira, Portugal out in the Atlantic ocean near Morocco, Africa so my postings will be brief and perhaps irregular until our return. I’ve also admired and benefited from Victor E. Frankel’s book Man’s search for Meaning. Here are some of rthe observations from this man who survived Jewish concentration camps where so many people were murdered. Why am I sharing these on a legal blog? Because I believe these are thoughts we trial lawyers can benefit and…

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