Trial Lawyer Prep

Elizabeth Larrick | Trial Consultant•larricklawfirm.com

What if you could hang out with trial lawyers and jury consultants, ask them about connecting with clients and juries more effectively; then take strategies, tactics, and insights to increase your success? That’s what we do each week on Trial Lawyer Prep. Hosted by Elizabeth Larrick - experienced trial lawyer, trial consultant, and founder of Larrick Law Firm PC in Austin, TX – every episode is an in-depth look at how to regain touch with the everyday world, understand the emotional burden of your clients and juries, and use focus groups in this process. The goal is to help you connect with juries and clients in order to improve your abilities in the courtroom.

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Episodes

044: Using Deposition Objections as a Band-Aid

Are you using objections as a band-aid for a lack of preparation? You may be sitting in a deposition where you’re taking the deposition of the defendant. Then as you’re asking tough questions or questions that get to the heart of the case, the defense lawyer would suddenly pop up and say, "Objection Form." Defense lawyers use this as a tactic to send a message to the witness. The defendant would then respond by saying they don't recall. This is a cycle that we see pretty often in depositions and...

Sep 21, 2022•16 min•Ep. 44

043: Into the Workings of a Medical Illustrator with Annie Gough

People say that a picture says a thousand words, and this holds true when you have illustrations during the trial. That’s the power of visuals – they tell a story, simplify complex concepts, and educate the audience in the easiest and best way possible. In today’s episode, Annie Gough, independent Certified Medical Illustrator, talks about how medical illustrators work and what it means to you in your practice. With over 20 years of experience in traumatic injury, medical malpractice, wrongful d...

Sep 14, 2022•43 min•Ep. 43

042: Guest Courtney Wilson on Adversarial Focus Groups

If you haven’t ever tried running an adversarial focus group, or any focus group for that matter, then you better start considering doing it to get the most out of deposition or trial. We’ve pretty much covered a lot of topics on focus groups in our previous episodes. Today, we specifically delve into Adversarial Focus Groups. They are similar to mock trials. The difference is that an adversarial focus group requires continual constant voting. That way, you have the ability to watch the needle m...

Sep 07, 2022•30 min•Ep. 42

041: How to Handle Client Resistance to Depo Prep

The client deposition has a significant amount of weight when it comes to deciding case value. However, one of the most common problems trial lawyers have is dealing with clients who resist preparing for deposition. These are clients who actively avoid giving time for preparation. Whether it's because of their work schedule, family commitments, or they're just too busy to dedicate more than 30 minutes with you. They just don't seem to have any time other than the day of the deposition. There are...

Aug 31, 2022•22 min•Ep. 41

040: Guest Interview Michael Neff: Client Deposition Preparation in Premises Liability Cases

There are a lot of emotional landmines when it comes to premise liability cases. For instance, summary judgment is an issue in just about every premise liability case. A lot of lawyers have this mental shortcut that if they beat the summary judgment, then the case is going to settle. But in premise liability cases, damages are not enough. You’re going to need to navigate through that, especially because insurance companies will always try to look for opportunities where they can take advantage o...

Aug 24, 2022•28 min•Ep. 40

039: Organizing Direct Exam of a Client

Losing a point with the jury is the last thing you want. At the end of the day, the jury will scrutinize your client more than anybody else in the room. So you want to bulletproof your client before they even get up on the stand. Compassion fatigue is not unusual in a world where we are constantly bombarded by horrific news. You should not repeat the things coming to the jury because they don't want you to waste their time. Therefore, make sure you're keeping things as organized as possible. Org...

Aug 17, 2022•18 min•Ep. 39

038: Are You Holding Your Case Back?

In the frame set of focus groups, are you holding your case back? Sometimes, we live with our cases for years, before we can find any kind of resolution either through settlement or trial. Now, this creates a tunnel vision where we can put these blinders on. There are blind spots everywhere that we just can't see. And it gets worse when we block out any other theory or possibility. When we do this, we take on a whole new risk because we are holding the case back. A focus group is a laboratory. I...

Aug 10, 2022•14 min•Ep. 38

037: Lawyer Jargon & Client Confusion

As trial lawyers, we live in our trial lawyer space for several hours each day. It even follows us sometimes at night and wakes us up because our brains have been rewired in law school and even further into practice. Along the way, we've picked up legalese and legal jargon that we use when we get together with other lawyers or we talk to the court. That's all fine when we’re in the lawyer world. But once we move into dealing with our clients, especially in litigation cases where we prepare them ...

Aug 03, 2022•19 min•Ep. 37

036: Testimony Prep Tool: Role-Playing

Once you’ve worked through mindset and organized things, the last piece of the puzzle in preparing for client deposition and trial preparation is role-playing. As trial lawyers, we can do a better job at getting better results for the client. Most people haven’t experienced being in a deposition or trial before. And so, role-playing will give them a realistic experience before they step into the room or turn on that zoom to be asked questions under the spotlight. It helps remove first-time nerve...

Jul 27, 2022•17 min•Ep. 36

035: Interview with Ryan Squires About His Record-Setting Verdict

We’re joined by Ryan Squires, a partner at Scott, Douglass & McConnico. He has been doing a ton of trials, but in this episode, he talks about one specific trial he did in Austin. It was a record-setting verdict in that the jury awarded them worth $40 million in damages and money, something they haven't seen in the last 20 years in terms of a private plaintiff in Austin. It also answered certain questions in a manner that allowed the judge to also give them a constructive trust that included rea...

Jul 20, 2022•33 min•Ep. 35

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