Winning Trial Advocacy Tips shares another great post – this one called "Sticking Thoughts in Your Jurors’ Brains." An excerpt: Repetition helps us remember, but it can also bore us to sleep. As the trial lawyer, your goal is repeat the information often enough that your jury remembers it,…
Justice William C. Koch referenced an article by Joseph H. King, Jr. about per diem arguments in his concurring opinion in Elliott v. Cobb, W2009-00961-SC-S09-CV (Sept. 23, 2010). Elliott recognized that lawyers in medical malpractice cases tried in Tennessee have a right to argue the monetary value of the case but cannot…
Winning Trial Advocacy Tips has an excellent post on how to improve the reading of depositions at trial. An excerpt: 4. Tab the appropriate pages. Just like on the radio, you want to prevent the courtroom from filling with “dead air.” When your witness is flipping through pages of the transcript,…
Trial Lawyer Tips has this great post on the need to be aware of what is happening in the courtroom and changing your game plan as the need arises.
Tennessee has pattern jury instructions for civil and criminal cases, but our federal judicial circuit only has pattern instructions for criminal cases. Here is a list of the federal circuits that have pattern jury instructions in civil and criminal cases, as well as a link to those instructions. The Tennessee…
I have said for years that it is essential that lawyers trying tort cases must visit the scene of the events to adequately prepare for trial. Now, Winning Trial Advocacy Tips has written a post called "Trial Lawyers at the Scene of the Crime" that does an excellent job of…
Trial Fusion is a software program designed to make it easier to keep track of exhibits at trial and publish them to the jury. Read more about it here. A three-minute video explaining the program is here.
Plaintiff had the obligation to seek attorneys fees in a case by a date certain. Plaintiff”s counsel and defense counsel agreed on multiple occasions to extend the deadline so that they can negotiate the fee issue, but Plaintiff failed to file a written stipulation concerning the extension with the Court…
Elliott Wilcox shares another great post from his Winning Trial Advocacy Tips blog. I know I rant and rave about how wonderful this blog is and I fear I may be accused of a man-crush on Elliott, a gentleman I have never spoken with, much less met. But there is…
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…