In a case we recently settled the plaintiff was working in an overhead bucket when he contacted a power line and was seriously injured. Here is the outline I was working on for jury selection. It will give you an idea of the general subjects I like to cover. In this case I intended to concede our client had been distracted and had some responsibility, but under Washington’s pure comparative negligence law the jury must compare that to the knowledge,…
Most lawyers are convinced that focus studies are an invaluable method of getting helpful feedback regarding cases. There are a variety of ways of conducting these studies. One can use a telephone survey like the calls you get when there is a pending election. One can also conduct a case study with a group at a meeting place. This technique can involve numerous approaches from a full mock trial to simply showing documents to the group for a spontaneous reaction….
Here are some random notes from the book The Language of Trust by Michael Maslansky You can’t ignore attacks as you are presumed guilty under proven innocent. Silence is an admission of guilt and every minute you delay telling your own story makes it worse. In dealing with a skeptic there are four principles of credible communication: (1) Be personal (2) Be plainspoken (3) Be positive and (4) Be plausible. The most important step is engagement. If the skeptic…