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Litigation

The Illinois Trial Practice Blog

Tips and techniques for trial lawyers, whether plaintiff or defense
By Schaeffer & Lamere, P.C

Post Frequency: 1.8/day

Last Entry: March 30, 2011 at 14:54:42

Help for the Lawyers with Depression

Posted on September 22, 2009
Here's an off-topic post as a public service. Lawyers with Depression is a website "created for lawyers with depression by a lawyer with depression." Its founder, Daniel Lukasik, writes-- Since I launched [the site] two years ago, it has gotten...

Who's Reading Your Email? Whose Email Are You Reading?

Posted on September 17, 2009
If you work for a large organization, you might find this article a little creepy. "What your emails say about you: Our electronic trails are powerfully revealing ? for those who can decode them." Although the article has only a...

Next Year in My Deposition Book: Breach of Contract

Posted on September 15, 2009
The third yearly update to my book Deposition Checklists & Strategies is at the publisher, which means it's time to start on the next update. During the next year, I plan to write a new chapter, Breach of Contract, which...

Appellate Briefs: Examples

Posted on September 10, 2009
The task of writing legal documents is often easier if one seeks out examples to use as models. To this end, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals provides access to briefs on its website. Although you cannot search by topic,...

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Illinois Lawyers: Can You List Your Specialties on LinkedIn?

Posted on September 08, 2009
In the LawPulse section of this month's Illinois Bar Journal, Helen Gunnarsson interviews experts about the ethics of listing specialties in a LinkedIn profile. There is a right way to do it. Read here: "Social media and legal ethics May...

The Art of the Reply Brief

Posted on September 03, 2009
At the (new) legal writer, Raymond Ward offers a "collection of articles on reply briefs" in response to a reader who complained in an email that "I have been unable to find any guidance with regard to developing an effective...

Interrogatories Before Depositions

Posted on September 01, 2009
Plaintiffs' lawyer Ron Miller has an informative post explaining why he serves interrogatories at the time he files a complaint, noting in part-- The advantage in first obtaining answers to interrogatories is that the answers should help the attorney determine...

Articles on Trial Style

Posted on August 27, 2009
There are a number of articles about interacting with juries from a trial consultancy firm called "Act of Communication." If you follow the link, you'll see a list of articles, including these: "In opening a case, grab the jurors' attention,"...

Book Recommendation: Consumer Class Actions

Posted on August 25, 2009
Over the years, I've owned a couple of different editions of Consumer Class Actions, from the National Consumer Law Center. Although geared towards plaintiffs, defense lawyers will find it useful too. It comes with a CD-ROM and a number of...

"Immunize" Your Demonstratives Before Using Them

Posted on August 20, 2009
You don't want to slow down a trial by being met with objections to your demonstrative exhibits. Here is how to "immunize" your demonstrative exhibits before using them in direct examination: Disclose your demonstratives to opposing counsel before trial; If...

Create Better Demonstrative Exhibits by Making Them Memorable

Posted on August 18, 2009
The key to a good demonstrative aid is making it memorable for the jury--especially since the jury will be unlikely to take the exhibit into the deliberation room at the end of trial. Try to involve as many senses as...

Videotaped Depositions Become More Common: A Developing Trend?

Posted on August 13, 2009
Are the lawyers who you work with expressing any of the following ideas-- A feeling that it's important to videotape all depositions of any witness an opponent might use at trial? Surprise that the lawyers' opponents are not videotaping depositions...

Legal Writing: Making the Complex, Simple

Posted on August 11, 2009
He wasn't a legal writer, but Raymond Carver had something important to say about expressing complex ideas in a simple manner: When something feels complex or complicated to you, write it out carefully and thoughtfully, several different times if necessary,...

Deposition Tip: Help with Sniffing Out the Liars

Posted on August 06, 2009
From Forbes: "How To Sniff Out A Liar," by Melanie Lindner-- While there is no surefire on-the-spot way to sniff out dissemblers, there are some helpful tactics for uncovering untruths. Liars often give short or one-word responses to questions, while...

Manage Your Law Firm "In the Cloud"

Posted on August 04, 2009
In his latest tech column in the ABA Journal, Dennis Kennedy lists some of the benefits of cloud computing: Lower cost; "Levels of security, backup, redundancy and performance" beyond "the typical law firm"; Updates and patches from the provider; Available...

Should You Have a Weblog Too?

Posted on July 30, 2009
I've been a blogging evangelist for a long time. In the early days of blogging, I wrote an article for the Illinois Bar Journal titled "What Weblogs Can Do for You." That article was published in mid-2004,a long time ago...

Prior to the Expert Deposition: Investigate the C.V.

Posted on July 28, 2009
Don't save your review of an expert's CV for the night before the deposition. Read it well in advance of the deposition, then mark it up and investigate the expert's claims. Has the expert exaggerated his qualifications? Such exaggerations can...

Your First Trial: Getting Up to Speed Quickly

Posted on July 23, 2009
At Ron Miller's law firm, Miller & Zois LLC, they're open to the idea of sharing their work product. The firm's "Sample Personal Injury Trial Materials" contains many real-life transcripts, in addition to forms and examples in these areas: Sample...

Objections to the Form of a Question: A Partial List

Posted on July 21, 2009
Lawyers who are defending depositions (or learning how to to defend depositions) sometimes like a handy list of form objections. If the form objection is not made during the deposition, this type of objection is normally waived. Here are some...

Trial Practice Tips from David Boies

Posted on July 16, 2009
At the Insurance Defense Blog, Dave Stratton has collected a number of litigation-related tips from David Boies. Stratton's post is titled "Trial Practice Tips Courtesy of David Boies," and pulls quotes from the (fairly) recent Boies book, "Courting Justice: A...

Navigating Trial Practice Tips by Category

Posted on July 14, 2009
Since I started this weblog in January, 2004, I've written 822 posts, enough for a good-sized book. Most of these posts are assigned to one or more categories. You can get to these categories by clicking on the list that...

A Paperless Office Testimonial

Posted on July 09, 2009
The idea of a paperless office continues to bring joy to the imagination of lawyers (even if a slightly different goal, an office with less paper, would be even better). If you're thinking of giving the paperless office a try,...

Dealing with 30(b)(6) Depositions from the Defense Perspective

Posted on July 07, 2009
Depositions of corporate representatives remain my preferred method of working up a plaintiff's class action or products-liability case. As seen in the "related posts" below, I've written about 30(b)(6) depositions before, but usually from a plaintiffs' perspective...

Technology at Trial: Some Basics

Posted on July 02, 2009
Here's a basic but useful article from Law.com's Legal Technology page: "At Trial, Don't Leave Technology Behind," by Jamerra J. Cherry-- You know you're ready for trial when you have two boxes of trial binders, work copy of records, note...

My Other Weblogging Project: The Legal Underground

Posted on June 30, 2009
My other weblogging project, The Legal Underground, is in its sixth year. The content is more wide-open and whimsical than Trial Practice Tips; some might say it's more fun. I've taken an opportunity to arrange some of the content so...

Depositions Before Interrogatories?

Posted on June 25, 2009
Can a well-crafted set of interrogatories ever hurt your case? In many complex cases, interrogatories served early in the case can educate your opponents about your case strategies at a time when you'd rather keep them in the dark. Moreover,...

Editing Tip: Spell Out Numbers One to Ten, and Don't Repeat Them in Parentheses

Posted on June 23, 2009
Apparently, there used to be some formal editing rule that said you had to write numbers twice, repeating them once in parentheses, like this: Before the consolidation order, there were more than eight (8) other, separate cases on file. With...

Deposition Tip: Use Exhibits Regularly During Video Depositions

Posted on June 18, 2009
You can create a more interesting and visually-compelling videotaped deposition by showing the witness an exhibit every so often. When you are preparing for trial, you can set up the video playback to display the exhibit on the screen as...

Use Your Opponent's Interrogatory Answers at Trial

Posted on June 16, 2009
Don't think of interrogatory answers as something to be forgotten after the initial stages of discovery are complete. Interrogatory answers often contain admissions that you can introduce into evidence at trial. Part of every trial notebook is an "interrogatory" section...

Cross-Examination: Tips from a Pro

Posted on June 11, 2009
I've written before about Your Witness: Lessons on Cross-Examination and Life from Great Chicago Trial Lawyers, edited by Steven F. Molo and James R. Figliulo. One of the contributors, Peter C. John, has an article titled "Cross-Examination and Jury Ego,"...

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