The Trial Practice Tips Weblog

Researching an Expert's Prior Testimony

Blog 702 offers this interesting post: "Expert Deposition Transcripts Online."  The post lists various databases in which to search for an expert's past deposition testimony, including a new one called CrossExam.com.

A Pause for Substantive Law: Broken Product Cases

This weblog is more about procedural than substantive law, but today I want to highlight an article I found at the website of a new Madison County law firm, Byron, Gerber, Petri, & Kalb. The article, which is about a particular aspect of products liability, is titled "Winning When the Product Broke." It's written by John T. Walsh and Christopher J. Petri, and it discusses "broken-product cases" from a defense perspective. 

It's a comprehensive article that I want to bookmark here for the next time I encounter a broken-product case.  The article's main point?  A product isn't necessarily defective just because it breaks.

A Weblog Devoted to Appellate Practice

Appellate Law & Practice is a group blog "devoted to appellate law that will provide case summaries and tips on appellate advocacy." 

So far, there are more case summaries than tips, but case summaries are important too.  Link from Crime & Federalism.

Law Technology

Yesterday, Steve from SW Virginia Law Blog left a comment to a post about deposition outlines: "Get an outliner like Notemap - software I use every day."

I concur.  In fact, I recently wrote about NoteMap in a post at Notes from the (Legal) Underground: "Weekly Report #43: Technological Aids."

For more ideas about technology and law, see Law.com's publication Law Technology News.

Deposing the Medical Expert

This one's from the plaintiff's point of view: "Preparing for the defense medical expert's deposition," by Betsey Herd and Janabeth Evans Taylor.  Originally published in Trial magazine, the article's focus is medical malpractice actions, but it will give you some good ideas for researching the opposing expert in any type of case.

Depositions: Are Outlines Uncool?

The question posed in the headline is merely rhetorical: of course outlines aren't uncool.  In fact, conducting a deposition without an outline would be a lot like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute.

A related question is how much detail your outline should include.  If you're new to the deposition process, your outline should include lots of detail, as this humble post by The Uncivil Litigator makes clear.  It means your outline should include not only issues and topics, but many actual questions. Just remember never to become wedded to an outline: to follow up properly on the witness's answers, you have to look away from your outline and listen.

As you become more comfortable with the deposition process, your outline might include only a checklist of issues you want to cover, one that you've prepared ahead of time after carefully thinking about the goals of the deposition in the context of the particular case.  But to walk into a deposition without at least this level of preparation?  Do it only if you want to risk showing up on the first day of trial and going splat.

How to Treat Federal Clerks, Plus More Tips for Writing Briefs

Brad Parker of Where's Travis McGee? posts "A Christmas Wish from Federal Clerks," which includes tips from Judge Englehardt of the Eastern District of Louisiana about how to treat clerks and how to write briefs.

The list is a long one: read it to see how many rules you are violating.

Tips for Writing Appellate Briefs

From the appellate practice group of Mayer, Brown, Rowe and Maw comes "How to Write a Good Appellate Brief," by Andrew L. Frey and Roy T. Englert, Jr.

The article contains many tips, but especially noteworthy are those contained in these two sections: "Organization Above All" and "The Perils of Overstatement."