27 Thursday Apr 2017
Posted in Discovery, Interrogatories
≈ Comments Off on Need to Discover Insurance Coverage? Try This.
Interrogatories Asking for Insurance Coverage Information, by Paul Luvera, Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips
When your discovery rules allow the plaintiff to get the defendant’s insurance coverage, never miss the opportunity to get all the details you can. Here are some excellent examples of interrogatories and strategy. -CCE
14 Friday Apr 2017
Posted in Jury Persuasion, Trial Lawyers, Trial Tips and Techniques, Voir Dire
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Human Nature: “Facts are White Noise & Emotions Rule” & Why We Continue to Believe Objectively False Things, by Paul Luvera, Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips
Does your head or your heart make your decisions? Are you sure? While your argument, evidence, and testimony may be perfectly reasoned and logical, how does it rank on a positive or negative on an emotional scale or preconceived beliefs? -CCE
30 Wednesday Dec 2015
Posted in Cross-Examination, Direct Examination, Experts, Litigation, Storytelling, Trial Tips and Techniques
≈ Comments Off on Observations On Gerry Spence’s Witness Examination Technique.
Gerry Spence Witness Examination Excerpts, by Paul Luvera, Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips
http://plaintifftriallawyertips.com/gerry-spence-witness-examination-excerpts
In 1985, a man was shot dead on a rural road in Lincoln County, Ore. A teenage boy and his mother were indicted for the crime. Gerry Spence took on both cases for the defense pro bono and faced off against a young prosecutor named Joshua Marquis in the juvenile’s trial; the attorneys did not take a shine to each other. So contentious was the trial that they both ended up before the Oregon State Bar. A special report in the bar matter described their relationship as ‘reveal[ing] a degree of hostility and vituperation unique in our experience.’ The bar charges were dismissed, but the animosity remained. Spence wrote a book about the Oregon trials The Smoking Gun.
I was at the courthouse in Portland during a day or two of this trial. I was able to spend some time with Gerry and his partner during recess. He did an amazing job of obtaining an acquittal for his client. I have part of the transcript of that trial. I recently re-read Gerry’s examination of the polygraph operator from that trial. Gerry’s position was the accuser, wife of the deceased, was actually the one who accidentally shot her own husband and then blamed his client who was a neighbor. He called the polygraph operator to show the accuser had failed the polygraph test. I’m setting out a few illustrations from that transcript for your consideration.
27 Saturday Jun 2015
Posted in Legal Ethics, Professional Civility, Rules of Professional Responsibility
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What About Professional Civility In The Law? by Paul N. Luvera, Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips
http://plaintifftriallawyertips.com/what-about-professional-civility-in-the-law
The subject of professional civility has been widely discussed and promoted in the past few years. Some states have incorporated the requirement in their oath of attorneys. All of the states have emphasized it in recent years. The United States Supreme Court, the ABA and even The National Judicial College promote the principles of civility. Here, for example, is part of the language of the core principles from the Judicial College written for judges nationally:
‘Civility encompasses a form of courtesy and behavior and speech that is essential to the role of courts in a democratic society. It is therefore, important that all involved with the court – judges, attorneys, jurors, witnesses, court staff, parties – act with civility to ensure the fair administration of justice and resolution of disputes . . . . Civility in action and words is fundamental to the effective and efficient functioning of our system of justice and public confidence in that system.’
28 Monday Apr 2014
Posted in Cross-Examination, Trial Tips and Techniques
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Some Thoughts About Cross Examination, by Paul N. Luvera, Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips
http://plaintifftriallawyertips.com/some-thoughts-about-cross-examination
London barrister Peter Brown wrote a book some years ago entitled ‘The Art of Questioning.’ In one chapter he wrote: Last summer, a motorcyclist was arrested in Oxford, England, for speeding. The lady prosecutor bore in on the defendant with a curved question: ‘Mr. Setright, your motorcycle is capable, is it not, of exceeding the 70 mph speed limit? He answered: Certainly it can exceed that limit. But, the possibilities implicit in that physical ability are it relevant to these proceedings. We are not here to consider what I might have been doing, but for the prosecution to prove, if it can, that I was doing what they allege I was doing. Were it otherwise you might just as well be here accused of rape, simply on the grounds that I have the necessary apparatus.’ . . .
