Conducting a helpful as well as a meaningful voir dire examination is both an art and a skill. However, however there are some fundamental rules for doing it right. Here are seven basic rules for conducting a good voir dire. 1. STAY FOCUSED It’s critical that you stay focused on the key issues in your case and case story you want to communicate. There are a limited number of key issues that you will have time to cover in jury selection….
“There are three types of lies — lies, damn lies, and statistics.” ― Benjamin Disraeli John Godfrey Saxe wrote this well known poem which illustrates the problem we often experience in our trials involving evidence of causation and scientific connection to events. Too often, it is a matter of interpretation. Blind Men and the Elephant It was six men of Indostan, To learning much inclined, Who went to see the Elephant (Though all of them were blind), That each by…
Over the 55 years I was involved in a plaintiffs trial practice I gave literally hundreds of talks around the country and even internationally. I learned that one can share unique and important ideas about successful plaintiffs trial practice and about 10%, at best, of the lawyers in attendance will effectively implement them. The overwhelming majority of them will listen, think that it is an interesting idea and then promptly forget about it returning to their usual practices. Those who…