Litigation

A Recommended Trial-Ad Book That Won't Steer You Wrong

By Evan Schaeffer

Although the book I am recommending today was written primarily as a law-school text, Trial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis, and Strategy is also an excellent resource for practitioners, especially younger lawyers working on their first trials.

Described as a "how-to book for trial lawyers," Trial Advocacy is full of practical information about all the areas of trial you'd expect: jury selection, opening, exhibits, direct, cross, experts, instructions, closing. The book also includes a DVD in which "experienced trial counsel present" a mock trial based on the materials in the book.

Here's a sample tip from the book, chosen pretty much at random from a chapter titled "Cross-Examination of Experts"--

The expert's opinion may be vulnerable in the following areas:

• The time the expert had or used in analyzing the data (the doctor examined the patient for ten minutes; psychiatrist did not examine criminal defendant until ten weeks after the crime);
• Information was incomplete (the engineer did not receive all the blueprints);
• Expert is making an incorrect assumption about the data (the expert assumes that the core soil sample he was given was from "quadrant 4";you will present evidence that the sample was from "quadrant 3," which invalidates the expert's calculation);
• Expert received faulty or biased data (much of the data is from an interested party);
• Expert's procedures or experiments for analyzing the data faulty, unreliable, left undone, or wrong (a mtallurgist failed to heat the metal to the appropriate temperature).

At almost 600 pages, it's a hefty book. You'll find a trailer for the DVD, sample documents, and ordering information at the book's companion website. You can also find the book at Amazon.

Full post as published by The Illinois Trial Practice Blog on March 19, 2009 (boomark / email).