Closing Argument: Opportunity and Challenge
Navigating Civil Standing Requirements for Defense Success — RICO Report Podcast
How to Make Clear, Quick and Effective Objections
The Presumption of Innocence Podcast: Episode 43 - New Horizons: Impact of Recent Appellate Circuit Rulings on White-Collar Criminal Defense Law
Podcast - Cross-Examination: Don't Ask One Question Too Many
Podcast - The Ten Commandments of Cross-Examination
False Claims Act Insights - If Everything Matters, Nothing Does: Parsing Materiality in FCA Disputes
Making the Lawyer-Client Relationship Work in Challenging Litigation – Speaking of Litigation Video Podcast
The Presumption of Innocence Podcast: Episode 42 - AI in Criminal Justice: Opportunity or Opportunity for Misuse?
Podcast - Refresh vs. Impeach: Know the Difference
Podcast - Cross-Examination of Expert Witnesses
Cross-Examination: The Three C’s of Impeachment
Cross-Examination: How to Effectively Impeach with a Prior Inconsistent Statement
Cross-Examination: Asking the Right Leading Questions
Podcast - Cross-Examination: The Importance of Organization
Work This Way: A Labor & Employment Law Podcast - Episode 20: Tips for Court Cases with Judge Dennis and Judge Wilkins of Maynard Nexsen
Podcast - Cross-Examination: Basic Approaches
Residential Contractor Boot Camp
The "Why" of Cross-Examination
False Claims Act Insights - Railroaded! How to Approach the Twin Tracks of Parallel Proceedings
When a case proceeds to trial, a legal team may face a critical decision about whether to have it adjudicated by a jury of peers or a single judge. Both options can offer benefits depending on the merits and subject matter...more
Case preparation can take months of research, depositions, and strategic planning—all for that one high-pressure moment in court. Even learning how to write a good opening statement can take a considerable amount of time and...more
Law students spend years training to evaluate details and learn procedures that don’t always fall under the umbrella of common sense to laypersons. The most important issues that seem obvious to attorneys can be ignored by...more
Your typical mock trial might involve three juries, with a total of 30 or so mock jurors. The typical public opinion poll run by an organization like Gallup, however, can involve more like 1000 participants. So what is the...more
This week, hosts Tina and Jennie welcome Dr. Jo Ellen Livingston, co-founder of Livingston & Shepherd Trial Consulting, where she advises clients on all aspects of the trial process, including in the areas of labor and...more
The adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” carries a special meaning in litigation. It can be one of those classic “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situations: After an injury or other tortious event, if you fix...more
In a litigation environment hallmarked by increasingly high jury verdicts, the time is now for the trucking industry to act and to re-evaluate what defense strategies and methods will best protect our clients and ensure the...more
In this episode of his "The Trial Lawyer's Handbook" podcast series, litigation attorney Dan Small is joined by intellectual property and litigation attorney Joshua Krumholz to discuss the ins and outs of trial law. With...more
A mock trial is not a crystal ball with access to the ultimate result you’re going to see in a real trial. There are too many differences between the research situation and the full trial setting for those results to be...more
As most litigators know, jurors’ attitudes and opinions often influence how they filter the facts of a case. It is through these lenses that jurors develop their perceptions of the parties and their corresponding motives,...more
When you test a product to assess its performance and safety, of course you have very substantive reasons for doing that: You are aiming to check effectiveness, prevent harm, and protect the brand. When a trial occurs,...more
For those trained in the sciences, relying on illustrations or examples is not considered nearly as good as relying on data. If they call something “anecdotal,” then there is a good chance that the word “merely….” precedes...more
The instructions for jurors are clear: They are to take an issue that has no effect on them, listen dispassionately to the evidence and arguments, apply the facts to the law, and make a decision. That is the model, but in...more
Jurors are often put in the position of assessing the probability or risk of something at the time a decision was made, before the consequences can be known. “How likely is it that a given result will be the outcome from a...more
The core of most determinations of negligence is the question, “What would a reasonable person have done?” And, at least in theory, this “reasonable person” isn’t supposed to be an actual person whose deeds are recorded in...more
Recently, three of the most high-profile current defendants did what conventional wisdom says they shouldn’t do; They took the stand in their own defense. Kyle Rittenhouse, on trial for killings at a Kenosha, Wisconsin...more
A number of years ago, innovators searching for ways to take some of the pain, delay, and difficulty out of the jury trial hit upon the idea to boil it down, rein in the discovery, simplify the rules of evidence, and try it...more
From the time we were kids, most of us swiftly learned what was likely to get us punished: a spanking or — for more recent generations — a time out. Usually, that was brought out by something we did, or by the situation we...more
Based on a recent and extensive report from New York’s Attorney General, the state’s Governor, Andrew Cuomo, is now facing numerous credible claims of a pattern of sexual harassment, with his fellow Democrats, including the...more
A ‘Golden Rule’ argument is one that encourages jurors to put themselves in a party’s shoes and think about what they would or wouldn’t have done. It leads to an objection because it encourages the juror to embrace a personal...more
In any challenging communication situation, it is best to combine the visual with the verbal. This is good practice because pictures tend to make things more “truthy,” in the sense that claims that are accompanied by relevant...more
During the past year or so, when clients have scheduled witness meetings or focus group and mock trial research, we will at some point get to the common question: “So, are we doing this in person or online?” Increasingly, it...more
Juneteenth is now a federal holiday, and even as many would prefer action on voting rights protection, equal access to education and healthcare, and police reform, the symbol is still important. It highlights both the...more
As we enter Pride Month, it’s a good time to reflect on where we are. President Biden recently announced a renewed push for full legal equality for LGBTQ individuals, but that takes place against a background of continuing...more
Critics of the jury system, or simply those who are nervous about taking part, will sometimes characterize a jury’s result as a kind of crap shoot. The feeling is that they’re inconsistent, and subject to the idiosyncrasies...more