Trial Advocacy In A Nutshell

This text concentrates on specific skills and techniques associated with trying cases. Rather than stating vague conclusions such as, "Be dramatic" or "Show no mercy to perjurers on cross," it identifies and illustrates specific tactics and styles of examination and argument. This text sets out techniques that can be molded to the reader's personal style, rather than ask submerging the reader's style into preconceived professional norms. This is done by alternative suggestions for reacting to common situations using a variety of factual settings and legal issues. The text provides the scope and highlights you need to excel in understanding this field. This will enable you to answer exam questions more quickly and accurately, and enhance your skills as an attorney.

"Like its predecessors, the Seventh Edition of Trial Advocacy in a Nutshell breaks the “art of advocacy” into practical skills and strategies of courtroom persuasion. Part 1 focuses on strategies for turning courtroom stories into “argument-centered narratives” that emphasize the evidence that supports legal claims. Part 2 analyzes and illustrates strategies, techniques and rules for presenting argument-centered narratives effectively during all phases of trial, from opening statement to closing argument. Part 2 includes separate chapters devoted to strategies for expert witnesses, oral persuasion skills, and courtroom technology. The book includes two chapters that approach the Federal Rules of Evidence as guides for admissibility of evidence rather than as exclusionary obstacles. They explain and illustrate how to satisfy the foundational requirements for virtually all forms of oral and tangible evidence, including electronic exhibits and exhibits prepared by forensic graphics experts. The chapters also explain effective strategies for making and responding to objections. The book uses real and fictional trial settings from different eras and sources to add variety while analyzing rhetorical trial strategies and emphasizing their durability. For example, the chapter on closing argument compares arguments made in the murder trial of Euphiletus (Greece, circa 400 B.C.) with those made in the trial of OJ Simpson (1995). Other analyses are based on the trials of the Rosenbergs (the so-called “atomic spies,” 1953) and the Menendez brothers (1991), while still other illustrative examples are based on the Hillmon case (1892), and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire trial (1911). We also illustrate and analyze trial strategies in the context of classic courtroom films such as Anatomy of a Murder, To Kill a Mockingbird, 12 Angry Men and My Cousin Vinny, and even children’s stories such as Humpty Dumpty and Jack & Jill." -- Publisher.

Win More Cases and Help More Clients! Ralph Adam Fine pulls no punches. In the sixth edition of his highly acclaimed How-To-Win Trial Manual shows why the traditional ways to try a case in court are suicidal, and gives extensive examples of such suicidal advocacy by famous, high-profile, well-paid trial lawyers. In each of his examples, Ralph Adam Fine shows how the lawyers could have done a better job. This will help you hone your winning skills! Ralph Adam Fine also demonstrates why many of Irving Younger’s famous Ten Commandments of Cross-Examination are not only wrong, but why following them significantly reduces your chances of winning. Since it was first published by JURIS in 1998, Ralph Adam Fine’s The How-To-Win Trial Manual has been giving lawyers that special edge so they can win even the toughest cases. Now, in this newly revised sixth edition, The How-To-Win Trial Manual takes the unique extra step of showing how and why famed trial lawyers Vincent Bugliosi and Gerry Spence, both superb advocates, could have been even more effective in their ground breaking face-off when Bugliosi “prosecuted” and Spence “defended” Lee Harvey Oswald in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The trial, memorialized in a superb two-disc DVD set, On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald, was before a sitting Texas federal district-court judge and a jury of Dallas citizens taken from the Dallas jury rolls. Although the trial was more than two-decades removed from the assassination, Bugliosi and Spence managed to get as witnesses many of the people who were at the assassination and its aftermath; none of the witnesses testifying in the trial were actors. The “trial” was in London, in a replica of a Texas federal courtroom, and both Bugliosi and Spence gave it their all—preparing as they would have for a real trial, and arguing their respective positions with the gusto for which each is justifiably famous. Ralph Adam Fine has taken the transcript of the two-disc DVD set and shown with his interleaved comments, as he has done with the O.J. Simpson, Martha Stewart, and Enron (Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay) trials, as well as a federal-court antitrust trial, how Bugliosi and Spence could have been better. The Oswald chapter, new for the sixth edition, will help all trial lawyers nail the winning techniques to be successful in the courtroom. The sixth edition also gives us Ralph Adam Fine’s special insights into the strategies and trial techniques of the prosecution and defense in the murder trial of Michael Peterson, memorialized in the six-hour DVD set, Death on the Staircase. Peterson was charged with killing his wife. He claimed at trial that she accidentally fell down the stairs in their Durham, North Carolina, mansion. This chapter, too, is new for the sixth edition How-To-Win Trial Manual and it shows what works and what does not work and why. It will help lawyers avoid the common traps that sink even the best “plans well laid.” The How-To-Win Trial Manual shows how to win by using your most powerful tool: The jury’s belief that you, the lawyer, know the “truth” of the case. Ralph Adam Fine also shows how to ask questions on both direct-examination and cross-examination so the jury will know the answers before the witnesses (whether lay or expert) respond. Simply put, if you phrase your questions so that the jury answers them the way you want, before your witnesses answer and irrespective of what your adversary’s witnesses may say on cross-examination, you will win! For a further explanation of Ralph Adam Fine's - and winning - techniques, as well as what other lawyers have said about The How To Win Trial Manual, visit his website www.win-your-trial.com Ralph Adam Fine shows you how to do all of this and more! You and your clients deserve no less!

The Fourth Edition of Modern Trial Advocacy: Law School Edition presents a realistic and contemporary approach to learning and developing trial advocacy skills. Dedicated to the law student, the book contains a "Trial Basics" chapter, which discusses what happens in a trial and the role the advocate plays. The Law School Edition has checklists that guide students in their performance. This edition also includes: • a brand new chapter on using electronic visuals and technology in the courtroom; and • new enhanced video content—top NITA faculty demonstrate the core techniques discussed in the book so you can observe and learn these skills in a new way. NITA's best-selling text, Modern Trial Advocacy, has set the standard for trial advocacy texts since 1993. All of NITA's renowned full trial programs use the text, as do prominent law schools nationwide. The authors guide the beginning advocate from developing a winning case theory through all phases of trial, explaining how to present a case as a story, and how to tell the story to the jury powerfully and persuasively.

The definitive guide to the brave new world of remote advocacy for the trial and appellate practitioner--as well as law students and recent law grads. Full of keen insights and practice tips to help you be the best advocate you can be in remote proceedings of all types, including remote courtrooms (hearings, bench and jury trial), arbitrations, mediations, appellate practice, depositions, and other forums. This book combines leading research on persuading audiences over remote platforms combined with tips on conquering the technical aspects of using remote platforms to your fullest potential. A useful tech section covers the basics to more advanced applications. Based on extensive troubleshooting sessions and discussions with judges and lawyers in remote proceedings following the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, this is the essential guide for remote proceedings that have since proliferated in the legal world--while acknowledging the continuing need for remote advocacy in the future.

Now in its fourth edition, Modern Trial Advocacy: Canada is the first and last word in Canadian trial practice. This classic handbook, published by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, gives practitioners a detailed road map for conducting a trial. Expanding on the original text written by Steven Lubet for an American audience, experienced Toronto trial lawyers Cynthia Tape and Julie Rosenthal guide the beginning advocate in developing a winning case theory through all phases of trial. They explain how to present a case as a story – and powerfully and persuasively tell that story to the jury. Modern Trial Advocacy: Canada provides not only Canadian case law and statutes, but also valuable insight into the specific elements of Canadian litigation practice as itpresents a realistic and contemporary approach to learning and developing trial advocacy skills. This book offers a sophisticated, theory-driven approach to advocacy training that distinguishes it from other books in the field. The fourth edition has been updated with current citations to case law, statutes, and rules and the latest “best practices” for using technology in the courtroom.

Basic trial advocacy is the classic text on the presentation of civil and criminal cases in court. Since its publication in 2005 it has been used in countless law school and continuing professional education programs to impart with clarity and simplicity the basic skills of effective trial presentation. It is a useful guide and refresher even for the experienced practitioner when going to court.