Articles Posted in Trial

Associated Press reports that a lawyer employed by Baxter International, Inc, a major manufacturer of intravenous drugs and medical devices, tried to pay an opposing expert in a lawsuit if he would leave the country on a key court date.  The expert caught the offer on tape.

Baxter’s response:  "The offer to engage an expert was not intended seriously and the lawyer had no authority to offer it or act on it," Baxter spokeswoman Laureen Cassidy told the AP. "It does not constitute bribery under Mexican law and was never acted upon."

Reminds me of the old joke about told about the defendant in a dog bite case.  "I don’t have a dog.  If I do have a dog it wasn’t my dog that bit you.  If you can prove my dog bit you I didn’t know my dog would bite.  If I knew my dog would bite you must have provoked my dog.   If you didn’t provoke my dog you weren’t injured by the bite.  [And the new one]  If you were injuried by the bite your claim for damages, compensatory and punitive, is capped."

Here is a fascinating article about a handwriting expert from Houston that assists lawyers in jury selection.  The expert is Alice Weiser, author of Judge the Jury: Experience the Power of Reading People.

An excerpt:  "Weiser said that people who make little circle dots above the letter "i" are individual and unique, but in a quiet way. People who write larger than the lines and outside the borders strive to live by their own rules. A letter "g" that looks like a number "8" means one is inclined toward the literary, either as an avid reader or an author wannabe."

Facebook – a leading source for informal discovery in personal injury and wrongful death litigation.

Now, the ABA Journal reports that a $10+million verdict is threatened because of a Facebook issue.

The defendant in the case has alleged that plaintiff’s counsel instructed a plaintiff to delete information from a Facebook account and then denied that the account existed at the time of the death.

On Saturday, July 9, 2011 I was very fortunate to be asked to speak at the  Pound Civil Justice Institute ‘s 2011 Forum for State Appellate Court Judges in New York City.  This year’s program concerned the huge reduction in civil jury trials in our state and federal court and the impact of the reduced number of trials on our citizens, our democracy, our court system, and the Bar.

The program was moderated by Prof. Arthur Miller of NYU, perhaps the most famous law professor in the country and, without a doubt, the nation’s civil procedure guru.

Marc Galanter from the University of Wisconsin School of Law shared this data I thought your would find of interest;

 Winning Trial Advocacy Tips is back, this time with a post giving great suggestions on how to make sure your jury sees and hears your evidence.

An excerpt:

1. How to guarantee that the jury hears every word of your recorded statement.  As you start playing the audio recording, cup your hand over your ear and make eye contact with each and every juror.  Non-verbally, you’re asking them if they can hear the statement.  If they can hear it, they’ll nod their heads in agreement or give you a “thumbs-up” sign.  If they can’t hear, they’ll give you a non-verbal clue to raise the volume (or maybe even tell you, “Turn it up, I can’t hear!”) 

Many personal injury lawyers are looking for ways to improve access to data during voir dire.  Here is an article that discusses the use of the IPad during jury selection.  The article includes a video that reviews two software products for the IPad. 

The IPad is amazing but I don’t think that those who have developed the jury selection software have a product that is very useful in the courtroom.

 Jessica Brylo has written an very interesting article about obtaining services of trial consultants when money is tight.  The article has a summary on the services that consultants provide and then offers suggestions about how to reduce the cost of the services while still have access to the expertise of the consultant.

Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips has this wonderful post on the injecting basic safety principles into cross-examination. 

An excerpt:

ELIMINATING OR MINIMIZING RISK OF SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH

Steve Frederick had trial consultant Becky Jones (of Modlin and Jones) share 10 tips on trial presentations.  Here they are:

•  Don’t ramble.

•  Get to the point.

•  Be concise.

The Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel Quarterly magazine has published an interesting article about jury questionnaires.   The authors of the article are John P.  Daniels and Annie L. Knafo.

The article includes a sample questionnaire that can serve as a starting point for drafting your own.

Read the article here.