- Things move a lot faster than I had imagined. Questioning that I had thought would take an hour took 10 minutes.
- Cross examination is much easier than direct. You can plan out cross question by question. Every question on direct, to a friendly witness, comes with the threat that your witness will say something stupid.
- And if your client messes up, the judge will blame you. And that will mean the jury will blame you, so you're screwed.
- After being so invested in our version of the facts, its jarring to hear the other lawyer ask questions. A case is like a novel with two authors who can't stand each other.
- Some lawyers make eye contact with the jurors, but that's just weird to me.
- I questioned a minor witness today. I did the got to do the whole walk up to the witness with a piece of paper and say "I'm showing you what's been marked as Exhibit blah blah blah." It felt a lot more stupid than I thought it would.
- One witness with a thick accent said that he was a "master baker" today. Three times. Hehehehe.
- Our trial strategy has slimmed dramatically in two days. People we thought we needed are now off our witness list. It's interesting to see how, after years of work, a case actually presents at trial.
- We're off tomorrow, back to court on Monday. We're expecting to rest on Monday. We may be able to close on Tuesday.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Live Blogging The Trial: Day 2
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
You should totally make eye contact with the jury, B-Dub! OWN that jury!
(Seriously, though, don't linger on anyone? But totally look them in the eye. Especially as the plaintiff's attorney, it'll make you a TON more sympathetic. FACT.)
Agree with Ms. Mantooth on the eye contact thing. Don't look too much though. I was seconding a trial back in the day and one of the jurors made the comment afterwards that they thought my job was to read them. Thank God it was after the trial and we had won already.
It was really great to see you guys. I hope we can do it more often!
Post a Comment