General Editor: Rodney R. Nordstrom, Litigation Simulation Services, Peoria
Your mission: communicate your client's case in the most positive light possible to the most receptive jury.
Your source for guidance: Inside and Outside the Jury Box: Effective Trial Strategies!
From understanding trial psychology to interviewing the jurors after the verdict, you'll find winning strategies that will put you over the top in your next trial, including
- community attitude surveys and change of venue studies
- developing a case theme
- witness effectiveness training
- using more than words alone
- selecting and deselecting jurors
- working with trial consultants
The entire text and all the forms from the handbook are included on the free companion book-and-forms-on-CD, ready to adapt for your own practice!
Chapter 1 — Introduction to Trial Psychology
- What is trial consulting
- History of trial consulting
- To hire or not to hire
- What to look for in a consultant
- Trial consulting services
- Discoverability of a trial consultant's work product
- Myths regarding trial consulting
Adrienne R. LeFevre, LeFevre Trial Consulting LLC, North Aurora
Chapter 2 — Community Attitude Surveys and Change of Venue Studies
- Community attitude surveys:
- Identifying the purpose
- Developing the questionnaire
- Collecting the data
- Change of venue studies:
- Utilizing the results in pretrial motions
- Expert's affidavit
- Illinois law
- Appendix:
- Motion for court-appointed jury consultant
- Motion to change place of trial based on pretrial publicity
- Expert's affidavit
- Definitions
Rodney R. Nordstrom, Litigation Simulation Services, Peoria
Chapter 3 — Developing a Case Theme and Integrating It Throughout a Trial
- Theme development and purpose
- Finding a persuasive theme
- Presuming to know
- Generalization, distortion, and deletion
- Delivery vehicle
- Discerning themes
- Consistency and the theme
- Unsupported conclusions
- Central theme and central image
- Seeding theme growth, when and where to plant
Eric Oliver, MetaSystems, Canton, MI
Chapter 4 — Witness Effectiveness Training
- Working with a consultant and discovery concerns
- Goals of witness effectiveness training:
- Initial overview
- Education
- Assessment/identification
- Managing witness weaknesses
- Depositions
- Particular types of witnesses and their special issues:
- Experts
- High-level executives
- Physicians
- Foreign witnesses
Cindy K. Andrews, Courtroom Sciences, Inc., Chicago
Chapter 5 — Using Demonstrative Evidence Effectively: Using More than Words Alone
- The importance of demonstrative evidence and necessity of exhibits
- Knowing the audience
- Preparation — the key to fluid presentations
- Budgeting myths and realities
- Using demonstrative evidence
- Presentation methods and related issues
- Using documentary evidence
- Using video for impeachment and absent witnesses
- Using physical evidence
- Illinois law
- Appendix of recommended reading
Patricia J. McEvoy, Airan Wright, and John Eamigh, Zagnoli McEvoy Foley LLC, Chicago
Chapter 6 — Selecting and Deselecting Jurors
- Goals and objectives of jury selection
- Mechanics of jury selection
- Developing a juror profile and voir dire strategy
- Interpreting juror responses to questions
- Jurors' cynicism — tort reform and frivolous lawsuits
- Appendix of jury selection resources
Daniel Wolfe and Keri Weber Sikich, TrialGraphix, Chicago
Chapter 7 — Post-Verdict Interviews
- What post-verdict interviews offer to counsel
- Who should conduct the interviews
- Tips on conducting the interviews:
- Jurors' motivation to participate
- Instructions from the judge
- Timing and format
- Topics to include
- Appendix:
- Suggested additional reading
- Sample post-verdict interview questions
Michelle L. Larson, Larson Litigation Consulting, Inc., Bartlett
Chapter 8 — Working with Trial Consultants
- Finding appropriate trial consultants
- Types of trial consultants
- Agreements with trial consultants:
Limitations on confidentiality
- Compensation
- Sample engagement letter
- Functions of trial consultants
Designing trial themes
- Conducting pretrial investigations
- Preparing for voir dire
- Evaluating group dynamics during jury selection
- Preparing witnesses
Ted A. Donner, Donner & Company Law Offices LLC, Wheaton
Chapter 9 — Ethical Considerations: Does Trial Consulting Help Achieve Justice?
- Current rules:
- Rules governing attorneys' behavior
- Ethical guidance within the consulting industry
- Criticisms of consulting services:
- Jury selection
- Witness preparation
- Cost
- Information misuse
Anthony C. Valiulis, Much Shelist Freed Denenberg Ament & Rubenstein, P.C., Chicago
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