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Great trial lawyers are made, not
born. Welcome to Verdict Academy,
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preserving trial wisdom for trial
lawyers. Join host Kevin Morrison,
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trial attorney in San Francisco,
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as he recreates those invaluable hallway
conversations that remote work has made
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rare.
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Candid insights and hard won lessons
from America's most accomplished trial
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lawyers, produced and powered by LawPods.
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Welcome to another episode
of Verdict Academy,
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where we bring you the best trial
lawyers in the country to share their top
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three trial tips. My name's Kevin
Morrison I'm in San Francisco.
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And today I'm pleased to have Peter
Koclanes join us as our guest.
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Peter is a partner at Venable's Denver
office where he tries important business
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disputes, securities
cases, class action cases,
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and other complex civil matters.
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Peter's one of the top trial
lawyers in the country,
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according to his opponents and the
judges who have seen him in action.
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He's a member of the Invitation Only
International Academy of Trial Lawyers,
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and is described by both his peers
and opponents as intelligent,
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methodical, innovative, thoughtful,
built to be a trial lawyer.
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In addition to practicing for over
35 years at the highest level,
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Peter's been a leader in his
community and for example,
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has served as the president of a
Colorado Trial Lawyer Association and has
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chaired the Colorado Judicial Institute.
Peter,
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welcome to Verdict Academy.
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Thanks so much, Kevin.
I'm glad to be here.
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I'm super pumped to have you on, my
friend. We've got the three trial tips.
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We'll talk about that in a second, but
just as a kind of general background,
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what drew you to become
a courtroom lawyer?
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Interesting question, Kevin. I
always wanted to be a trial lawyer.
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I grew up playing sports,
very team-oriented.
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I played pretty much every
kind of sport there was.
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My wife didn't know me at the time
would characterize me as a jock,
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one of those jocks. And I just love
working with teams and competing,
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and it really has stuck with me.
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So from the time I was
probably in elementary school,
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I wanted to be a trial lawyer.
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Wow. There's a massive overlap in my
view between competition and trial.
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Many of the best trial lawyers are,
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all of them are competitive
and most are athletic.
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Was there something about the law,
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like you saw a TV show or you
got lawyers in your family,
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or what was it about like, oh,
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a trial lawyer as opposed to
competing in some other area?
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Well, I'm going to date myself here. So
I don't have any lawyers in the family.
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An uncle who was trained as a lawyer
and he does transactional work.
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No trial lawyers. My daughter's on
her way to becoming a trial lawyer,
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and my wife's a trial lawyer. But
prior to that, no trial lawyers.
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I have to tell you, Perry Mason had
a big impact on me back in the '60s.
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Yeah.
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So I'm dating myself. It's
also helping people, Kevin.
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I just get a thrill out of being able to
help someone who otherwise wouldn't be
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able to get it.
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And the law and our judicial system
provides all of us an avenue to
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resolve disputes.
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And most of our clients are in
positions where but for that system and
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but for having an advocate
really fight for them,
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they're not going to at least have
the opportunity to get justice,
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much less get it at the end.
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Yeah, for sure. And we got
a great. Everybody complains
about our legal system,
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but compared to every other legal system,
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I think we got the best in the world and
we still got the rule of law here that
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our clients can depend on. So
awesome. So let's get into it.
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The three tips you want to provide
generally relate to discovery,
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both documents and depositions.
That's the first point.
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The second is jury selection and
the challenges of limited time.
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And the third is examination,
both direct and cross.
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So those are the three main points.
So let's start with point number one,
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discovery, documents.
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You got big complicated
cases above my pay grade.
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You're probably swimming
in megabytes of documents.
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Talk to me about document
discovery, Peter, the case to trial.
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Definitely. So I'm a business trial
lawyer. That's all I've ever done.
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So you're right, exactly right.
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A lot of my cases will have
huge volumes of documents.
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And I've seen a lot of different practices
and a lot of different way people
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handle this.
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I started practicing after clerking
for a judge for a few years
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up in New York at a
large Wall Street firm,
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and we had gigantic document cases.
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And that was back in the '90s
before all of these databases
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and everything else.
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And back then there were teams
of associates that spent most of
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all their time reviewing documents
and analyzing documents and the like.
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Things have changed a lot since then
with databases and intelligent searching,
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and now AI is even
changing that even more.
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But at core and business cases, it
really does come down to the documents.
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And documents are my
friend in these cases,
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even though there's a lot of them.
So the tips I really focus on are
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in discovery, document
discovery and depositions.
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And in document discovery that
the mantra is prepare, prepare,
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prepare for document discovery.
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When we started even at the beginning of
the case, all the way through the case,
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we're thinking about how
we're going to try this case.
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And documents are obviously
a huge part of that.
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So even beginning with the complaint,
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what we'll do is draft a complaint and
make sure we include specific allegations
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on issues where we are going to want
either document or deposition discovery.
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And so we intentionally do
that because we know later on,
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if we get into fights about
relevance or discoverability or
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proportionality and all
those kinds of things,
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we want to have a place that we could
point to in the complaint where we've got
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a basis to seek that. And we'll
do that all throughout the case,
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but that's just starting at the beginning
of the case and really teeing up
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document discovery. One of the judges I
clerked from that court of appeals for
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the Federal Circuit in Washington was a
pretty terrific trial lawyer in his day.
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And he used to tell me, Peter,
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the key to winning trials is know the
facts of your case better than anyone
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else. And it's a pretty easy thing to
say, but it's a harder thing to do.
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But I've really tried to do that. It
takes a lot of work. And so in our cases,
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I make sure that I,
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along with the other folks who
are going to be trying the case,
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are actually personally reviewing
the documents so they know the facts.
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And in our cases, a lot of
them are business tort cases,
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which I know you do a lot of torts
and injury torts and the like,
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and business torts are no different.
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And a lot of times it's piecing
together a document from over here and a
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document from over there. And then
in the middle you get some deposition
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testimony and you put together
the story based upon that.
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And so you really need to know
the documents in these cases.
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And we use modern database
analytics to cull down documents.
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This recent case we had for a
client out in LA who had a large
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arbitration pending in Colorado,
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there were three million
pages of documents produced.
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And so we had to use this data analytics
program to help cull that down.
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But at the end of the
day, my partner and I,
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Nick DeWeese and I sat down and
we divided up 36 boxes of emails.
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And he took the first half and I took
the second half, and that's what we did.
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We spent a good amount of time
over the holidays last December,
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each of us going through these things,
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but we found gold and it really helped
get that case resolved about a month
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before trial.
So documents are your friend.
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Don't shy away from reviewing documents.
Roll up your sleeves and get into it.
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And just like Nike says,
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sometimes you just have to just do it
when it comes to document review and
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putting that together.
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Wow.
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What a great story to distill
three million pieces of
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information to try to distill that
because at the end of the day,
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you've got a big rule of three guys,
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kind of comes down to three things
or three documents. Generally,
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that's kind of my go-to. Maybe
it's one more, maybe it's one less,
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but I like to make it about three things.
Got to keep it simple. And to distill,
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it takes an extraordinary
amount of work, Peter,
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for you and your team to distill
that volume of information down to
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three. And for you to personally
take 12 boxes or whatever it was,
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just gobs of pieces of paper. It's
not glamorous. It's not exciting.
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It's not closing argument, but
that's how you win your trial.
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Find that piece of that one email
that gets your case for you.
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That's how you do it.
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Yeah. Well, I know you do
that in your practice, Kevin,
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and your cases may not
have three million pages,
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but the documents in your cases
are as are more important.
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And I know you get into those things
and study every line and every page and
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really take some complicated component
of the documents and distill it down into
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something that's simple. And I love
the rule of threes, by the way.
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Unfortunately,
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I think our daughter who's in law school
right now grew up hearing that from me
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in terms of she would talk
to my wife Jean and me about
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presentations at school.
And it's like, Caroline,
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you got to distill it down
to the rule of threes.
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Yep. It goes back to our DNA, I
think. Father, Son, Holy Spirit,
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whatever it is.
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Let's tell you three things and it's
just we're wired to live for three things
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and it just makes it easy
and your attention spans
there for sure. So hard work,
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the key to documents. Depositions, Peter,
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talk to me about deposition practice.
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Depositions, unfortunately,
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some lawyers overlook the opportunities
that are presented in depositions.
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And again, the rule of three depositions,
it's easy. It's listen, listen,
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listen. So many of us,
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and we're busy and we are not just
working on one case at a time.
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And so a lot of us will rely on younger
lawyers to put together outlines or
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pull documents as potential
deposition exhibits.
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And that might be okay as a start
for a first draft and the like,
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but the person who's taken the deposition,
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a lawyer who's taking the deposition
really needs to get into this stuff and
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come up with sort of this
approach, a holistic approach,
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how they're going to approach the witness,
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figure out what documents they may use.
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And sometimes I have a whole bunch of
exhibits I don't use because I don't know
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what the witness is going to say,
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but I want to be prepared to go down
whatever route that the witness goes. And
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as far as outlines,
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I have kind of a mini outlines and
I might outline things on particular
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potential exhibits. But even then,
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there's some folks who are really good
trial lawyers who will have a detailed
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outline.
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But the problem with having too much of
an outline is a lot of us rely so much
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on the outline, we're not
listening to what the witness says.
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It's critical when you ask a question
to me is to listen because if you
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don't and you're just tied to your
outline, you might hear part of an answer,
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but you're so tied to your outline,
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you don't follow up on that and
you go to the next question,
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you blow an opportunity. So if you
use an outline, ask your questions,
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put the outline aside,
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and then go back to it when you're ready
to go onto the next subject matter or
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whatnot.
Another thing in depositions,
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and I anticipate you do the
same thing, is so many lawyers,
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they get really great deposition testimony
and then they go in and they ask the
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last question. And you know
what I'm talking about.
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But when you get some good
answers, leave them alone.
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When you get the good
answers, just move on.
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No matter how tempting it is to
ask that next question about, okay,
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and so you admit you were
negligent. Don't ask that question.
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Get the great testimony and
just move on. Obviously,
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stating the obvious,
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using depositions as an opportunity
to learn and nail down the witness
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about unknown facts is really
important. But what we do,
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and I'm sure you do the same thing, Kevin,
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because I just know what
kind of lawyer you are,
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is use the opportunity of these
depositions as an opportunity to
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set up potential impeachment of a witness
at trial. And there's so many times
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when I might be in there
taking a deposition and I'll
have a colleague in there
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with me or a client in there with
me when I'm taking opposing party's
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deposition.
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And I'll ask them questions and I'll
get the answers and we'll take a break.
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And we'll go out and do a breakout room
and the client or my colleague will say,
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"Well,
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what were you trying to get at with those
questions and those answers that you
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got?" And I said,
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"They were great answers because I've
got these documents that completely
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refute what that witness has
said." And then they say, "Well,
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why didn't you show them that
at the deposition?" And I said,
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"I'm going to wait for trial to do
that." But it's just judgment calls.
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And so really use these depositions
as an opportunity to set up
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impeachment at trial.
It makes trial prep so much easier.
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It makes the trial so much easier.
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And it's going to lead to success
because you've got that great deposition
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testimony in the can. It's not going
to change. At least in Colorado,
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it's 30 days to review a fine. Even
if they change something in it,
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you still have the opportunity
to question them about it.
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So don't just go in there thinking
about this as an opportunity to find out
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about unknown facts. Really
use it as, and a lot of times,
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depending on the size of the case
and the importance of the witness,
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I'll use it almost like I'm prepping
for cross-examination at trial and just
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have everything lined up and nail and
get that deposition testimony in the can.
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Yeah, I can agree with you
more on a couple issues.
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Just want to highlight the listening part.
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I think that takes some degree
of confidence and experience too.
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And I was a younger lawyer and I just
didn't trust myself to, I'd forget,
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you're so in your head initially, right?
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You're just in your head and you
don't want to forget anything.
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Just tie to your outline and, oh God,
did I ask that guy that question?
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I could make sure I asked that one.
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And so you're so in your head
that you forget to listen
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to the answers. And the
answers, they can be nuanced.
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There can be a pause. There
can be a non-answer answer,
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which can be really helpful. And
so it's so important to listen.
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I think it does take some degree of
confidence and experience to get there.
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So important. And the deposition stuff,
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leave the good stuff for trial.
I can't agree with the more,
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especially in the experts. The
experts, I would call them name rank,
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serial number depths.
Give me all your opinions.
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Let's save the good stuff for trial and
just everything, everything, everything.
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Now,
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there are times when you want to settle
a case and for some reason to nail an
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expert on certain things.
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So you might use some of your
good stuff because of that reason.
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But generally my rule is I'm
setting this case up for trial,
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see if you're good stuff for trial
and just ask the open-ended questions.
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And one of my favorite
questions in deposition is why.
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Because why just calls
for a huge narrative and
hopefully there'll be gold in
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that narrative that you
can use later. So yeah.
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Right. No, I love that. I love it.
Great strategy. Great strategy.
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Yeah. Well, same as yours.
All right, jury selection.
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I'm guessing the vast majority of
your work is federal court stuff.
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Is that fair?
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Not necessarily. No. Okay out
in Colorado as a plaintiff,
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I really enjoy the state courts.
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I think things tend to move a little
faster out here in state court. Okay.
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But sometimes we're in
federal court as well.
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But in terms of jury
selection and voir dire,
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and I don't know what you're
seeing out in California,
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I know you practice all over the country,
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but what we're seeing in Colorado and
some other jurisdictions where I try cases
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is the judges are really limiting the
amount of time that they're providing
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for attorneys to do their
voir dire and jury selection.
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And out here,
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at least there's a number of federal
court judges that want to do most of it
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themselves. And so the issue there is
to be super strategic in my opinion.
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Jury selection is so doggone
important. It just is.
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I think it's the case.
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And I have a joke when I sit down when
jury selection's done and they're sworn,
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I just turn to my whoever
I'm trying on the case. Okay,
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cases oversee at closing because I
think it's done at jury selection,
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but go ahead. Sorry.
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Well, I know you do the same thing,
but boy, prepare, prepare, prepare,
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and then listen, listen, listen.
And what I've started to do,
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particularly given the limited amount
of time that we have to do this,
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00:16:06
is back in the old days, I would
have my list of questions and topics,
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00:16:11
and I'd kind of go around the array
and I'd ask people different things and
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00:16:15
really look at them and
ask them about something.
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00:16:18
And what I found is that
takes a lot of time.
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00:16:20
And we really don't have time to
do those kinds of things anymore.
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00:16:24
At least where I practice, we don't.
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00:16:26
So what I'll do is actually try to
create a conversation with the array,
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00:16:31
and I'll set up hypothetical
binary position. So I'll say,
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00:16:36
ladies and gentlemen,
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00:16:37
I've got a neighbor John
who lives to my left.
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00:16:41
And this is a contract case, Kevin.
Say, "My neighbor John,
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00:16:45
when it comes to contracts,
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00:16:47
it has got to be in writing and it's
got to be signed by both parties.
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00:16:50
And if you don't have that,
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00:16:52
you're out of luck." And then
on the other side is Jane.
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00:16:55
And Jane's a real bright person
too. And when it comes to contracts,
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00:17:00
her view is a person's word is
their bond. That's all you need.
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00:17:04
And then once I set that up,
I'll say, "Ladies and gentlemen,
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00:17:07
how many of you are more
like-minded with John?
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00:17:10
Raise your hand." And then I can
kind of get a sense and I'll say,
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00:17:13
"How many of you are more like-minded
with Jane?" And I get a sense.
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00:17:16
And so you just start on these
bigger case issues. Pretty quickly,
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00:17:20
you can start to get a sense
of who's thinking what.
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00:17:23
And then I start kind of focusing in
on particular jurors. And I'll say,
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00:17:27
Ms. Smith, you had mentioned that you
are more like John. Can you tell me why?
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00:17:32
And then everyone gets to hear it.
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00:17:34
So you're kind of educating
the jury at the same time,
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00:17:36
but you're also eliciting a whole
bunch of information about the way they
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00:17:40
philosophically look at things. And it's
not just, do you believe in contracts?
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00:17:45
But it kind of it. And
I do that same thing,
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00:17:48
whether it's a contract case or a fraud
case, misrepresentations or omissions.
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00:17:53
With a fraud case, I might
say, "My neighbor John,
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00:17:56
he believes don't trust anybody.
You need to verify everything.
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00:18:00
If you trust somebody, that's your
own fault." And then I'll say,
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00:18:04
ever heard the old saying, "Fool me
once, shame on you, fool me twice,
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00:18:08
shame on me." John doesn't believe that.
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00:18:10
He thinks if you get
fooled the first time,
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00:18:12
that's your fault.
And then I go over to Jane and I say,
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00:18:14
"Jane's view is that people should
be honest and tell the truth.
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00:18:19
And when they start to tell the truth,
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00:18:20
they should tell all the truth." And
then I'll try to set up that dynamic too.
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00:18:23
And then I start asking the
array, "Are you more like John?
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00:18:27
Are you more like Jane?" And start
nailing and focusing in on that.
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00:18:30
The other thing is, just
like in depositions,
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00:18:34
don't stick to your script. Listen,
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00:18:37
because you will hear some
amazing things. And when you do,
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00:18:41
you don't want to just move on. You
want to focus on that. So again,
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00:18:44
and to your point about jury selection,
so again, one of my partners,
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00:18:50
Nick DeWeese and I tried a
week-long trial in a pretty hotly
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00:18:54
contested business torts
case. Nick did the voir dire,
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00:18:58
and he's a younger lawyer.
Well, everyone's younger than me, Kevin,
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00:19:02
but he's younger.
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00:19:03
I'm right with you, my friends.
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00:19:04
But he did the voir dire. And really,
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00:19:06
it was a top 10 Colorado jury verdict
that year that we got for our client.
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00:19:11
And so we posted on the Colorado
Trial Lawyers Association Listserv,
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00:19:15
just like you do with your wins.
And somebody wrote in and responded,
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00:19:20
one of the members saying,
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00:19:22
"Can you have whoever did
the voir dire give me a call?
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00:19:25
Because that's what wins the case."
So call her up and tell her what a
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00:19:30
great job he did and how he did it,
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00:19:31
but it's such an important
part of the trial.
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00:19:34
For sure. When you're with limited
time, the method that you said,
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00:19:37
do you agree with John or you
agree with Anne or whoever?
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00:19:39
And then you can loop everybody in how
many you lose with him and how many agree
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00:19:43
with her?
Speaker:
00:19:44
And then hopefully the judge will see
that you're actually making progress and
Speaker:
00:19:47
doing a good job on voir dire.
I'll give you some more time.
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00:19:50
I think that a lot of judges think that
lawyer do a terrible job of voir dire,
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00:19:54
and I think many do. And
so I think they limit it.
Speaker:
00:19:56
I kind of throw the baby out
with a bath water and say, okay,
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00:19:58
you're getting 15 minutes because
everybody else I see is not good at this.
Speaker:
00:20:01
And once they see that you're doing
effective voir dire, they tend usually.
Speaker:
00:20:05
Not all. They're federal
judges, right? But not all.
Speaker:
00:20:07
Some will give you more time if you're
making progress and actually getting real
Speaker:
00:20:11
answers that are case determinative,
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00:20:13
frankly. What's your status on
questionnaires? You like questionnaires?
Speaker:
00:20:16
You don't like questionnaires?
Speaker:
00:20:17
It depends. This is a couple years
ago I had a business torts case.
Speaker:
00:20:20
It was a corporate governance dispute
among three guys who started a cannabis
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00:20:24
business out here. And it was
on the defense side for that.
Speaker:
00:20:27
We had counterclaims. But there were
a lot of technical issues in that,
Speaker:
00:20:32
also just concepts.
Speaker:
00:20:34
And so having that questionnaire
really saved a lot of time, Kevin.
Speaker:
00:20:38
But we worked really hard with
plaintiff's counsel to develop a fair
Speaker:
00:20:44
questionnaire. And the
judge, terrific judge,
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00:20:47
was very receptive because we were
able to work together and come up with
Speaker:
00:20:52
an agreed upon approach to use it.
And it was super, super helpful.
Speaker:
00:20:56
Yeah.
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00:20:57
My philosophy on those is people
are generally more honest,
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00:21:02
open when they're by themselves writing
down their thoughts about certain
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00:21:06
case-specific issues. When
they walk into open court,
Speaker:
00:21:09
it's such a weird experience. It's overly
formal. It's stuffy. They're nervous.
Speaker:
00:21:12
They don't want to talk
in front of people.
Speaker:
00:21:15
They'll answer however it'll
shut the question down,
Speaker:
00:21:18
just say yes or no so
you stop talking to me.
Speaker:
00:21:20
So I think people are more
open on questionnaires than
they are in open court.
Speaker:
00:21:24
And so I'm a big fan
because of that reason.
Speaker:
00:21:27
And hopefully you can get agreement
with the other side and that makes the
Speaker:
00:21:29
judge's life easier. All right, our
third and final topic, examination,
Speaker:
00:21:34
both direct and cross. What are
your tips for direct exam, Peter?
Speaker:
00:21:37
Again, both on direct and on cross,
to me, less is more. I'll tell you,
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00:21:42
and this was back in my career.
And just like we all are,
Speaker:
00:21:47
we're sponges and we just listen
to other lawyers and learn.
Speaker:
00:21:50
And a pretty successful injury
lawyer out of Boulder taught me this,
Speaker:
00:21:55
which is don't put on more testimony
and evidence than you need to win
Speaker:
00:22:00
and prove your claims. That's number one.
Speaker:
00:22:03
And number two is don't
include more claims for trial
than you need in order for
Speaker:
00:22:08
your client to win and recover
the appropriate amount of damages.
Speaker:
00:22:11
And I've always think about that. And
you've kind of said it early on in this,
Speaker:
00:22:16
Kevin, which is simplify
things. Keep it simple,
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00:22:19
focus on what's important and get it done.
Speaker:
00:22:21
And that's my approach for direct
and that's my approach for cross.
Speaker:
00:22:26
Further corollary is you don't
need to call multiple witnesses to
Speaker:
00:22:31
make your point. And I know you've said
it before because I've heard you say it
Speaker:
00:22:35
before, that you don't need multiple
witnesses saying the same thing. In fact,
Speaker:
00:22:39
it takes away from the jury's
view of your client's case when
Speaker:
00:22:44
you do that because it's kind
of like, what's going on here?
Speaker:
00:22:48
So I agree 110% with your viewpoint
on that, and it's so important.
Speaker:
00:22:54
Lastly, the focus is on the witness
on direct. It's not on the lawyer.
Speaker:
00:22:59
And so many lawyers are up there
waving their arms and it's like,
Speaker:
00:23:02
what are you doing? It's direct.
It's all about the witness.
Speaker:
00:23:05
And if the witness is your client,
Speaker:
00:23:07
you want the jury to be focused on your
client and your client telling their
Speaker:
00:23:12
story in their own words.
Speaker:
00:23:14
And that's the most impactful thing that
you can possibly do as a trial lawyer
Speaker:
00:23:18
on direct is let the witness tell the
story. Now that means there's a lot of
Speaker:
00:23:22
preparation for that, a lot of prep.
Speaker:
00:23:26
And make sure you spend the time doing
that. So many lawyers are so focused on,
Speaker:
00:23:31
well,
Speaker:
00:23:31
I want to nail them on cross if they
spend all this time on preparing for cross
Speaker:
00:23:35
and they don't prepare for direct of
their client or other important witnesses.
Speaker:
00:23:40
And then just anecdotally,
Speaker:
00:23:43
the one thing I would say is going
back to the number of witnesses is
Speaker:
00:23:48
some of my best jury verdicts on
our side as a plaintiff has been
Speaker:
00:23:53
our client,
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00:23:55
maybe an important non-party
witness and an expert or two.
Speaker:
00:23:59
And then the defense goes up
and puts on 12 or 15 witnesses.
Speaker:
00:24:04
I think I can't tell you exactly
what the jury's thinking.
Speaker:
00:24:07
I can just talk about the results, but
I've had pretty good results doing that.
Speaker:
00:24:11
And again, it goes back to what you said,
Speaker:
00:24:13
which is keep things simple and present
it in a way that the jury understands
Speaker:
00:24:17
it.
Speaker:
00:24:17
No, it's so important. There's so many
pieces of gold in what you said, Peter.
Speaker:
00:24:22
The whole, why call three witnesses
on something when one will prove it?
Speaker:
00:24:27
And that's even backed up
by a study I read somewhere.
Speaker:
00:24:29
And I keep freaking this put in the
show notes, but they did a big study.
Speaker:
00:24:34
They researched this. If there's a red
light, green light case, for example,
Speaker:
00:24:37
and plaintiff calls one witness, the
light was red, boom, you prove it.
Speaker:
00:24:41
But now I got two other guys
who said the light was red too.
Speaker:
00:24:43
So now you're calling three
witnesses, the light's red.
Speaker:
00:24:45
And you actually are going to get a worse
result with more witnesses because I
Speaker:
00:24:50
think basically the
people are thinking, well,
Speaker:
00:24:52
why is he trying so hard to prove
this? It's just so weird. I mean,
Speaker:
00:24:55
we know it's red.
Speaker:
00:24:56
Why do you need to call three people
on that? They get really suspicious and
Speaker:
00:24:59
start going these rabbit holes. So
less is more for sure. And like, oh,
Speaker:
00:25:03
I'm going to call three physical
therapists. Really? Why? Why not call one?
Speaker:
00:25:06
Or maybe the doctor can talk
about the therapy. I don't know.
Speaker:
00:25:10
But it's hard because I think
law school, the more, more, more,
Speaker:
00:25:14
want to build everything up and you
got to get no distill less is more.
Speaker:
00:25:17
So absolutely. And the plaintiff
direct exam, my God, it's so important.
Speaker:
00:25:21
And it's got to be they've got
to tell their story, but man,
Speaker:
00:25:25
it takes a ton of time. It reminds that
letter, sorry, the letter's too long.
Speaker:
00:25:29
I didn't have enough time
to write you a short one.
Speaker:
00:25:32
It takes so much time to prepare
to keep it short and simple.
Speaker:
00:25:36
And that client's got to be prepared to
tell his or her story in an effective
Speaker:
00:25:40
way. And you got to get out of the way.
It's got to be the plaintiff's story.
Speaker:
00:25:44
But it takes a ton of hard
work to get the client there.
Speaker:
00:25:48
I agree with you so much.
Speaker:
00:25:50
Cool. Well, as expected, the three
minutes flew by, but any parting words,
Speaker:
00:25:54
Peter,
Speaker:
00:25:55
for younger folks starting out their
careers as trial lawyers or just trialers
Speaker:
00:26:00
these days? What advice do you
have to impart on our audience?
Speaker:
00:26:04
Oh boy, Kevin, I'm sure it's the same
thing that you do every day. Like I said,
Speaker:
00:26:08
I know you and just from the
International Academy, and boy,
Speaker:
00:26:13
what a mentor you are. But
first is take cases to trial.
Speaker:
00:26:16
There are just not enough
trials now. And obviously,
Speaker:
00:26:19
settle them in the appropriate case
and do what's best for your client.
Speaker:
00:26:23
But in terms of try your
cases and just do it.
Speaker:
00:26:28
Take care of yourself in the days leading
up to and during trial. Eat right,
Speaker:
00:26:32
get sleep. I had a trial lawyer, a good
trial lawyer out here in Colorado say,
Speaker:
00:26:37
sleep is a weapon. So make
sure you're getting some sleep.
Speaker:
00:26:41
Don't wait until shortly before
trial to start your prep.
Speaker:
00:26:43
There is so much stuff going on in trial
where you're going to be working really
Speaker:
00:26:46
hard outside the trial anyway.
Speaker:
00:26:49
Get your case as much as you can in the
can before you walk into the courtroom.
Speaker:
00:26:53
And then go with it and
listen and pivot and
Speaker:
00:26:58
adjust. But there's just too many things
happening during trial to be thinking,
Speaker:
00:27:02
well, I'm going to prepare my cross
the night before or whatnot. Mentor.
Speaker:
00:27:08
All of us should be mentoring younger
lawyers. Give them some witnesses.
Speaker:
00:27:12
Let them have some role. And the
judges love it. In my opinion,
Speaker:
00:27:17
Kevin, in my experience, they just do.
Speaker:
00:27:20
And it's kind of nice when you're in
a week-long trial or whatever it is,
Speaker:
00:27:24
and the judge says, "Mr. Koklanis, who's
your next witness?" And I say, "Ms.
Speaker:
00:27:29
Smith is going to be handling this."
And they kind of perk up, "Well,
Speaker:
00:27:34
let's see how this goes." And they love
it, and it's great for the profession.
Speaker:
00:27:37
And finally, and I've heard this so many
times, but I'll say it again, have fun.
Speaker:
00:27:41
Have fun. This is what we do. There's
nothing better. We're helping people.
Speaker:
00:27:46
We're in court. We're presenting,
we're advocating, we're competing,
Speaker:
00:27:52
and we're trying to get a good
result for our clients. So have fun.
Speaker:
00:27:55
Yeah. Well, Peter, that's incredible
advice. I can't agree with you more.
Speaker:
00:27:59
Trial is the most fun I
have professionally by far.
Speaker:
00:28:02
Getting ready for trial is no joke. It's
no joke. It's what I'm doing right now.
Speaker:
00:28:07
It is a grind. But man, once the lights
are on and you're in courtroom, and man,
Speaker:
00:28:12
this is what it's all about. So yeah,
Speaker:
00:28:16
thank you for imparting your wisdom.
Thank you for mentoring others.
Speaker:
00:28:20
It's so important. Look, my
days are numbered here, right?
Speaker:
00:28:23
I've got more yesterdays and
tomorrows as Bill Clinton would say,
Speaker:
00:28:27
but it's important that the
next generation get in there
because jury trials are
Speaker:
00:28:31
shrinking.
Speaker:
00:28:32
We need to get more people interested in
getting in court so the next generation
Speaker:
00:28:35
can exercise the Seventh Amendment and
we can have great trialers in the future.
Speaker:
00:28:40
And you're doing your part to do
that. So thank you, my friend.
Speaker:
00:28:43
Well, thank you, Kevin,
Speaker:
00:28:44
for all you're doing and for your
podcast and for including me because what
Speaker:
00:28:47
you're doing is, boy, it's so valuable.
Speaker:
00:28:49
And thank you for being out there and
doing what you're doing. Thank you.
Speaker:
00:28:53
All right. Thanks, Peter.
Speaker:
00:28:56
Thank you for listening
to Verdict Academy.
Speaker:
00:28:58
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Speaker:
00:29:00
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Speaker:
00:29:04
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Speaker:
00:29:09
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00:29:17
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