I like to have a one page outline of what the talking points are for my case at trial. Here is an example from a trial several years ago against a medical device manufacturer whose producthad a defectwhich they learned about, but didn’t warnabout. The defect resulted in a false positive test result of cancer fora young, newly married woman when she really didn’t have cancer. After two years of unnecessary and very drastic cancer treatment it was discovered the testing was in error and none of her treatment was needed. A Washington jury brought in a record multi million dollar verdict in the case which was widely reported by the TV and print media at the time. The following is my one page sheet from the trial. I recommend that you should be able to reduce the key points you want to emphasize at trial on one sheet of paper and keep hammering them home to the jury.

TRIAL POINTS

1.WHAT DID ABBOTT KNOW & WHEN DID THEY KNOW IT?
2. WHAT DID ABBOTT REVEAL & WHAT DID THEY CONCEAL?
3. WHAT DID ABBOTT DO TO PROTECT PATIENTS FROM HARM?

REVEAL & CONCEAL

• Shading the truth, hiding the ball & outright lies
• Good medical care requires complete information
• Concealing knowledge means bad medical choices
• Company has a duty of passing important information down the line
• Who has the most knowledge & in best position to know?
• They deliberately used watered down warnings

DUTY OF PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY

• This harm was preventable, avoidable & inexcusable
• Are companies responsible for their products?
• When it came to responsible and safe conduct, this corporation cut corners
• This corporation violated the trust placed in them by doctors & patients

SHIFTING THE BLAME

• It’s not fair to shift the blame for what you are responsible & accountable for

DEFECTIVE TEST

• Their test HAD A BUG IN IT & they covered it up

DAMAGES

• For the past two years Jennifer has felt like a pawn in a chess game being played by giants
• This corporation just shrugged their shoulders" & went back to business as usual

FAULT POINTS

• This corporation played Russian roulette with the health of women

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