Those of you over 30 will remember James Carville’s message to the Clinton campaign in 1992: "It’s about the economy, stupid." Well, trying cases is about persuading jurors to your client’s point of view. Sure, you must prove-each-element-of-your-cause-of-action-by-a-preponderance-of-the-evidence, but you must do so in a way that keeps the…
Paul Luvera does a nice job in this post hitting the high points of David Ball’s book Ball on Damages. An excerpt: [W]e must shed our law school training about advocacy and learn to present cases consistent with the way that people really make decisions. You were probably taught…
Some of you are a little young to remember Irving Younger, the great trial advocacy teacher. Professor Younger developed the "10 Commandments of Cross Examination" that were taught in trial advocacy programs across the country for many, many years. Experienced trial lawyers would take issue with some of Younger’s commandments, arguing…
Winning Trial Advocacy Tips is one of the best blogs for trial lawyers in the entire blogosphere. Elliott Wilcox repeatedly delivers useful, timely information of interest to those of us who try cases. I encourage you to add it to your regular reading list. Today, I share with you his…
The Federal Evidence Review has shared a PDF of the current federal rules of evidence. Only 40 pages in length (20 pages if you print on the front and the back of the page) this PDF is a handy addition to your trial notebook for cases in federal court.
The Blog of Legal Times advises that the Committee on Court Administration and Case Management of the United States Judicial Conference has developed pattern jury instructions "to address the increasing incidence of juror use of such devices as cellular telephones or computers to conduct research on the Internet or communicate with…
How many tort cases are tried in Tennessee in the last year? The Annual Report of the Tennessee Judiciary gives us the answer. Here is the data for the year ended June 30, 2009: Total jury trials in all tort cases: 260 Total number of medical malpractice…
Trial Lawyer Tips has a great post about steps to take to before picking a jury in another city, county, or state. An excerpt: To get familiar with my out of town trial venues, I used to order the local paper several months before trial and read it each day…
The Civil Litigation Blog has shared a list of themes that can be used in personal injury trials. While there is nothing particularly original on the list, I do not recall ever seeing such a list of potential themes in one place.
Once again we turn to Paul Luvera for guidance on some aspect of trial practice. Paul is an extraordinary lawyer who is kind enough to share his knowledge with us on a regular basis via his Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips blog. This time, Paul shares his method of organizing for…