I will teaching this week at the Spence Trial College as I have every year virtually from when it began to now. Gerry created the college in 1994 with an invitation for lawyers to attend and learn to be trial lawyers. He invited some lawyers from around the country to come to Wyoming and act as instructors. I was flattered to be invited to be part of that first year faculty only to have a trial in Oregon run over…
David Ball has written excellent books which are available from NITA. In his book on damages, he recommends that the plaintiff motivate the jury to award damages in order to: (1) Fix (2) help and (3) to make up for harm done. He suggests that the jury should use a scale for evaluating the damages which consists of three questions: (1) how bad is the harm (2) How long does it last and (3) How much does it interfere with…
Trial lawyers have to learn how to look at the same issue from different perspectives. Seeing how an issue that appears to be against your client’s interests can be viewed in another way or how to deal with a critical issue is an important part of being a trial lawyer. When Clarence Darrow was charged in Los Angeles with conspiracy to bribe jurors in the LA Times bombing case against the McNamara brothers, a key prosecution fact was that Darrow…