Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips

Arguing defense of plaintiff contributory or comparative negligence

April 2, 2009 Paul Luvera Comments 0 Comment

We usually face a defense that our client, the plaintiff, was himself or herself negligent and that their own negligence was the cause of the injuries they are suing over. This is a common defense we have to deal with. I’ve collected a few arguments on that subject and here isa collection ofthem. COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE Ordinary care means average – a C student – not an A student. The law does not require the plaintiffto be an A student in…

The importance of rules

March 28, 2009 Paul Luvera Comments 0 Comment

John Branch wrote an article in the Times Digest about two basketball players, Eric Devendorf and Josh Heytvelt. Eric was on the Syracuse college team and Josh on Gonzaga’s team. Both were important players needed by the teams to win when each of them got into serious trouble. Eric was accused of hitting a female student in face and Josh of having a bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms when involved in a traffic stop. The story was about how very differently…

Voir dire with a minority client

March 25, 2009 Paul Luvera Comments 0 Comment

We have clients who don’t look like or who are not like most of the Caucasians onour jury panel. This represents a challenge in securing a fair trial for our client. There are many ways to deal with this, but I offer the following from an actual trial involving a civil plaintiff. He spoke broken English, had a full religious beard and was a member of the Sikh religion. He was a naturalized citizen from India where he had been…