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Litigation Strategies Jury Trial Credibility

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Witnesses, Remember Confidence is a Behavior

Testifying, whether in a deposition or in trial, can feel pretty threatening. Particularly if you’re a named defendant in a lawsuit, you know you’re going to be the target. But even when you’re on the other side, or you’re an...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Defense Opening: Repair Credibility First

In an era of increased juror skepticism and perceived “Nuclear Verdicts,” there has been a call for new thinking on defense side. The need is for fresh approaches to cut against the factors motivating jurors toward extreme...more

Mandelbaum Barrett PC

Credibility Is Key to Every Successful Trial

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Prior to the civil fraud trial brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Donald Trump’s credibility had already taken a big hit in the two lawsuits brought by E. Jean Carroll (“Carroll”), claiming sexual assault....more

Holland & Knight LLP

Exuding Credibility in the Courtroom

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In this episode of his "The Trial Lawyer's Handbook" podcast series, litigation attorney Dan Small sits down with Frank Vecella, principal at McKool Smith and former head of litigation for Ericsson, for an in-depth discussion...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Masks in Court: Understand the Real Lesson

As we begin to take stock of and conduct research on the effects on the pandemic adaptations, it is important to keep an essential principle in mind: The research on pandemic adaptations is not just about the pandemic...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Apply Two Tests to Any Battle Between Stories

It’s America’s case of the moment: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, Hollywood’s former power-couple, now exchanging accusations of physical abuse in a Fairfax, Virginia courtroom. The defamation case initially brought by Depp has...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Opening: Build Your House First, Then Take Aim at Their House

I have worked with more than one defendant who simply could not resist it: Right out of the gate, in opening statement, they come out swinging against the plaintiff. They’re not being honest, they have their own share of...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Witnesses, Add to Your ‘Truthiness’ by Showing Pictures

The idea is a merger of pop culture with academics. In pop culture, “truthiness” refers facetiously to the feeling of something being true, independent of its actual truth value (a term coined by late-night comedian, Stephen...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Experts: Use Counterfactuals

As of press time for this post, 173,094 Americans have died from the novel coronavirus. If the United States had followed the example of other developed countries by taking earlier and more decisive actions against the virus,...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Face It: Masks Don’t Hinder Credibility Assessment

As a sign of just how serious the coronavirus pandemic is getting, the President has finally appeared in public with a mask. The precaution of wearing a face mask is still highly politicized, but it is slowly catching on. In...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Don’t Hedge

The habit of sort of just filling in your speech with expressions of uncertainty, when you’re not really that uncertain, is probably a bad habit. I mean, I am fairly sure that these hedges cut down on your perceived...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Examining Attorneys, Keep Your Cool

So you’re conducting the cross-examination, and the witness is fighting like a three hundred pound marlin at the end of your fishing line. And they’re not fighting by legitimately drawing distinctions or by using their own...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Don’t Get Spanked (By Your Judge…If You Can Avoid It)

In one of the many classic scenes from “My Cousin Vinny,” the hapless defense attorney played by Joe Pesci, delivers his brief but to-the-point opening statement (“Yeah, everything that guy just said is bullshit… Thank...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Witness Testimony: Understand the Confidence/Competence Circle

For someone starting out in a career, or in some other situation where credibility will be required, there is an expression: “Fake it until you make it.” In other words, if you act like you’ve got it, then people are going to...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Summarize With Care

Americans finally got to see the redacted report from Independent Counsel Robert Mueller last week. The report on Trump campaign issues relating to Russian election interference raised questions in a great variety of...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Project Your Voice

It is one of the central messages of witness preparation: Be confident, because if you’re confident, you’ll be more credible. Once, I got the reply from a witness, “But I don’t feel confident,” and the question, “Should I act...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Rehabilitate Your Lying Witness

It was another big moment yesterday as Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, testified publicly before the House Oversight Committee. Widely seen as an opening act prior to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Understand Anti-Corporate Bias: The Extent of the Bias and the Effect of Familiarity

It is well known that some people have it in for corporations, especially when these large companies find themselves on the defense side in a courtroom. Our own research has shown that a negative attitude is very common, with...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Beware of Paraleipsis (and Other Shady Rhetorical Strategies)

Just before Thanksgiving, the White House released a statement on U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia in the wake of the brutal murder of U.S. journalist and Saudi expatriate Jamal Khashoggi. The short version of President...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Consider the Upside of Outrage

It is almost election time again. But the normally low-turnout midterm may not be in the cards this time around, owing to the outrage on both sides of the political spectrum. And some believe that it’s a shame that we have...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Expect Bias Against the Insurer

It is an odd business relationship. As far as the customers go, they’re buying a service that they truly hope they will never need. For the companies, the ideal customer is the one they never meet, the one who pays their...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Experts: Be Experienced, Confident, and Visual

Recently, I was running a mock trial exercise with three retired judges. Reviewing the testimony, one shared a skepticism toward the “hired-gun” engineers they had heard, and opined that what is “more important is the...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Account for Social Exclusion in Employment and Whistle-blower Cases

There is often something distinctive about the person bringing a case. Whether they are the victim in a discrimination or harassment case, a whistle-blower in an employment case, or a number of other case types, their act of...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Admit it Experts, You Don’t Know Everything

Experts know things. That’s what makes them experts. That is why they’re allowed in court: to inform the jury’s or judge’s understanding. Once there, of course, they are picked apart by an adversary with the goal of making...more

Holland & Hart - Your Trial Message

Instruct the Jury Accurately on Witness Credibility

Given the nature of my involvement in cases, I’m not often present in the courtroom when the jury receives its instructions. But I remember one time that I was. As the judge read out the sections focusing specifically on the...more

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