Originally pushed in the King County Bar Association Bar Bulletin, March 2017. Have you ever walked away from a meeting with a witness thinking, “She’s going to do just fine,” only to be dismayed when the person testifying is not the same person you prepped? Good witness preparation is more than sitting down and talking to the witness about their testimony. But too often witness preparation is just that – an attorney sitting across the table from a witness telling them about the case, their role in the story, and reviewing key documents. The trouble is that witnesses are often

If the cast of Saved by the Bell had jury duty, Zach Morris (The Adult Years) would be a likely candidate for jury foreperson. Personable, popular, and persuasive, the other jurors would look to him for his opinions and interpretation of the case. If you’re not familiar with the show, Zach was the typical “popular guy” inserted into any television show. He wasn’t afraid to speak-up in class (even if he didn’t always have the right answer), he was confident, and he was charismatic. And although he wasn’t the brightest student at Bayside High, based on his personality, his career

Among the requests for demonstrative exhibits, timelines rank among the most frequent. This makes sense given that most of the stories attorneys tell are chronological. Timelines are a great tool for laying out the facts of a case in a linear fashion. But I see many missed opportunities when timelines are laid out in the typical fashion – a text event connected to a time bar with a line (called a “flag”). Often there are so many timeline entries that the landscape becomes overloaded with “flags” and the story gets lost. When creating a timeline, think about a design strategy

Even though I spend a significant amount of time in a courtroom for my job as a trial consultant, it is rare that I have the opportunity to be on the other side of the equation and serve as a juror. I recently received a summons to appear for jury duty and I thought it would be interesting to share my perceptions from a seat in the jury pool. My first day started with a near disaster as I left my wallet at home and I had to run back to get it. Luckily, I still made it to the

Recently there was quite a stir over the possibility that Alexa, Amazon’s highly successful and useful home device, could be listening to everything everyone says (it’s too late, she has already heard what you have said), and that it could actually be used as evidence in a criminal trial. After all, “she” must be listening, since she is voice activated. This is an interesting realization. So, Alexa hears everything: she is always “aware.” It reminded me also that in a jury trial, a jury “sees” everything, is always looking, always assessing, always evaluating, and potentially judging what they see. Jurors certainly listen

Kellyanne Conway has introduced the concept of “alternative facts” into the political discourse with her defense of President Trump’s Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s assertions about crowd size at the presidential inauguration. Of course, this isn’t the first time this concept has been present in political discussions; in fact, the sales of George Orwell’s 1984 have skyrocketed since the inauguration as Americans reflect on some of the literature that introduces concepts like this. Laura Dominic and Alexis Knutson recently wrote about the potential presence of “alternative facts” in trials. Although these “facts” might not be appropriate, I have seen the introduction

The Radiolab spinoff podcast More Perfect recently aired an episode titled The Imperfect Plaintiffs, detailing the case of Lawrence v. Texas, a landmark Supreme Court case that evaluated the constitutionality of anti-sodomy laws. (If you haven’t heard of More Perfect, each episode uncovers the lesser-known details of a landmark Supreme Court case. Take a listen and test your knowledge.) The episode explains “test case litigation.” In test case litigation, the goal of certain individuals or groups of political activists is to overturn, or find unconstitutional, some law that’s currently on the books. However, in order to do so, they need

Alternative facts seem to be getting in the way a lot these days. Sean Spicer’s representation that President Trump’s January 20 inauguration audience “…was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe,” was quickly discounted given the aerial photograph posted by the Vox showing the opposite to be true. Kellyanne Conway’s attempt to explain that what Spicer claimed was not a “falsehood,” but rather simply “an alternative fact,” only made matters worse. The phrase “alternative facts” riddled headlines Monday morning, highlighting just how little tolerance the public has for twisting the truth.

Joyce E. Tsongas, a pioneer in the field of jury consulting, passed away with her family by her side on January 15, 2017. Joyce paved the way for modern day trial consulting and will always be known as one of the influential leaders in our field. Joyce was the daughter of a speech teacher and college debater, so communication was in her blood. So much so, she was the first woman to graduate with a Master’s degree in Communication from Purdue University. She made legal communication her profession when she founded Tsongas & Associates in 1978. She frequently recalled the

One part of our case strategy sessions involves creating an outline of the case narrative. We call this the Case Story, and it typically entails outlining topics that serve as the segments of your overall case presentation. When working with attorneys representing corporate defendants, we often find ourselves suggesting an alternative strategy to the natural tendency to make the start of the story, “The Corporate History” or “The Good Work of the Company.” That tendency is natural and intuitive given that the plaintiff will have just completed an hour-long attack on your client’s conduct. It makes sense to want to