THE MAGIC OF WRITING ON PAPER, RE-FRAMING OBJECTIONS & JOINING THE JURY TRIBE

THE MAGIC OF WRITING ON PAPER, RE-FRAMING OBJECTIONS & JOINING THE JURY TRIBE

Today I am reviewing a collection of trial materials that I have collected over the years and which I began by storing in indexed notebooks long before the start of the digital age. Here are three examples. WRITING ON PAPER When I first began the practice of law court rooms were virtually devoid of any visual aids, no paper and not even a blackboard. In fact, a blackboard was considered a unique device to use in a trial and one…

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BETRAYAL, NOT MISTAKE, IS THE ESSENTIAL MESSAGE FOR WINNING NEGLIGENCE CASES

BETRAYAL, NOT MISTAKE, IS THE ESSENTIAL MESSAGE FOR WINNING NEGLIGENCE CASES

I have written frequently about the importance of a message of betrayal in negligence cases, especially medical malpractice. But, I continually see lawyers presenting their cases as a mistake. They present a case involving an error, a mistake or a negligent act and then expect the jury to follow the law. But, jurors are driven by their value systems irrespective of the jury instructions. When a case of negligence is tried to a jury of conservative people, too often the…

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JURY SELECTION AND THEME IDEAS FROM ERIC OLIVER

JURY SELECTION AND THEME IDEAS FROM ERIC OLIVER

Eric Oliver is a long time friend and a very experienced jury consultant. http://www.eric-oliver.com/  He wrote an article about communications  “Heard Mentality.” Some of the observations Eric made are important to remember in our practice and are summarized below: Jurors begin their understanding of our story with a theme. We all make sense of case stories by starting at the most general level and working down to details. A theme provides a general direction. If you do not provide a…

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