The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog

How to Be More Productive as a Lawyer

From the American Bar Association: "Law Hacks: 101 tips, tricks and tools to make you a more productive, less stressed-out lawyer." Some examples:

21 Do the thing you dread the most first thing each day.

22 Break big tasks up into small chunks. Writer Gina Trapani of San Diego wrote her book of productivity tips, Lifehacker, in 60-minute chunks. “I’d set a kitch­en timer and write like hell till the bell rang, and then I got up and took a break —no matter where I was,” she says. “It’s amazing how a ticking clock can keep you on task and focused.”

23 Calculate filing deadlines and keep track of multiple court schedules with shareware like DateCalc 1.2 or CSC Date Calculator 2.1. The software counts days between dates or measures days from dates. They can save both time and embarrassment.

24 Stop wasting so much time read­ing blogs and watching YouTube.

I suppose it's okay to violate #24, at least for today. Meanwhile, the ABA has opened up its ABA Journal for free access--be sure to take a look. 

A Christmas Gift for Litigators

You'll excuse me if I plug my book every now and then. So here's the plug, disguised as a Christmas-gift idea for litigators:

That's Deposition Checklists & Strategies, by T. Evan Schaeffer. To learn more, see the James Publishing website or read a comprehensive brochure (pdf).

No more commercials for a least a week--I promise!

A Tip for Associates Who Want to Get Ahead: Volunteer for Difficult Assignments

Associates who want to get ahead should be ready to volunteer for difficult assignments. It's the only way around the catch-22 that prevents lawyers from moving up: to get experience, you need good assignments, but you can't get good assignments unless you have experience. The exception is when the assigning lawyer is in a pinch and there is no one else available. That's when you can step in and get to take your first deposition, get to argue your first appeal, or get to try your first case. You just have to be willing to volunteer.

Perhaps this much is obvious. What's difficult is putting yourself in the frame of mind where you're willing to make your life more difficult by taking on something you don't feel entirely comfortable with. But once the task is behind you, you'll be glad you accepted the challenge. Meanwhile, you'll set yourself apart from the others at the firm who never volunteer because it just seems too risky. Those are the lawyers who will never move ahead.

Related posts:

1. A Tip for Young Litigators: Choose an Aspect of Litigation and Become an Expert

2. Young Associates: How to Set Yourself Apart

3. Tip for Young Associates Who Want to Get Ahead: Know When to Say “I Don’t Know”

Depositions: Critical Questions for a Defendant Doctor

In a past post, I wrote about questions you should ask in every deposition. Here are a few more key questions when the deponent is a defendant doctor in a medical malpractice case:

• Whether the doctor has ever had a medical license suspended or revoked;
• The contents of the doctor's medical records, if handwritten and hard to read;
• Whether the doctor's preparation for the deposition included the review of any medical literature, and if so, what it was;
• Whether the doctor, in his view, committed any errors of judgment in their treatment of the patient;
• Conversations about the event with the patient, family members or other doctors;
• The doctor's understanding of medical definitions important to the case, and whether these definitions are commonly accepted in the medical community.

Source: "15 Key Deposition Techniques in a Medical Malpractice Case," by Gerry Oginski writing at the South Carolina Trial Law Blog.

Illinois Oral Arguments to be Posted on Web

From the Springfield Journal-Register: "Supreme Court Web site to feature audio, video of arguments," by Adriana Colindres--

Beginning next month, the Illinois Supreme Court will add a new feature to its Internet site: audio and video recordings of oral arguments in the cases it hears.

The court announced Friday that the arguments should be available on its Web site - www.state.il.us/court - the day after they take place, or possibly even sooner.

You can find more about the news in an Illinois Supreme Court press release (pdf). The audio will be available as MP3s; the video will be in Windows Media format. There will also be a podcast feed.

Several other courts already provide audio or video of oral arguments. You can find a list at the website for the law library at the University of Washington--scroll to the bottom of this page.

Depositions: How to Stop Coaching

Though there are rules in most jurisdictions requiring objections to be concise, this doesn’t mean some lawyers won’t still try to make long-winded, rambling objections that suggest the answer to the deponent. How do you prevent opposing counsel from coaching witnesses with such “speaking objections”?

Examples of speaking objections are easy to come by. “Objection, that question has been asked already, and the witness already said no. Asked and answered.” “Objection, vague. I don’t understand that question. What do you mean by ‘epidemiology?’ Are you talking only about statistically significant finding? Or not?”

Even the common practice of telling the deponent “If you know” after you ask your question constitutes a speaking objection as far as I'm concerned.

To shut down speaking objections, you have to speak up -- loudly and with conviction -- the first time your opposing counsel tries to amplify on simple objections to form or foundation. Don’t be afraid to interrupt once the behavior starts. In fact, you should interrupt. By raising your voice and talking over opposing counsel, you’ll insure both that the reporter takes down what you say and that the witness hears you rather than the opposing counsel, who will most likely stop talking anyway.

Try something like this: “Stop right there. You’ve made your objection. Anything else is a speaking objection, and there aren’t going to be any speaking objections today.”

In my experience, this is all it takes to shut down the speaking objections before they start. There are exceptions, of course--lawyers who will take your interruption as an opportunity for a chest-thumping retort. Don’t take the bait by getting drawn into an argument. Simple wait for the next speaking objection and, if it comes, tell the opposing lawyer that it’s now happened twice. If it happens again, you are going to end the deposition and seek a remedy with the court.

Your threat can’t be idle. As is good practice before any deposition begins, you should have already familiarized yourself with the rules applicable to the particular deposition for seeking court intervention. You probably won’t need to do this, but you’ll feel better knowing the circumstances under which speaking objections by your opposing counsel will give you an opportunity to seek the court’s help in shutting the practice down.

For many more deposition tips, see my book, "Deposition Checklists and Strategies" (James Publishing 2006).

What Defense Lawyers Can Learn from the Lawyers on the Other Side

In "Think Like a Plaintiffs Attorney to Lower Litigation Costs," Stewart Weltman argues that defense lawyers can learn from the lawyers working on the other side of the "v."

How do plaintiffs' lawyers think? Weltman, who's a plaintiffs' lawyer himself, draws these fairly safe conclusions:

• Plaintiffs' lawyers have smaller teams working on cases, with even the most experienced lawyers working on the case day to day;
• Plaintiffs' lawyers assume that every case will go to trial, which helps their settlement posture;
• Plaintiffs' lawyers don't waste resources trying to persuade a judge to adopt weak arguments, which helps them maintain their credibility;
• Plaintiffs' lawyers try to keep the cases simple, rather than obfuscating them.

According to Weltman, each of these plaintiff-lawyer traits can be used to strengthen the defense of a case. Weltman also suggests hiring a plaintiffs' lawyer to be part of the defense team. "[H]aving an experienced plaintiffs counsel incorporated into the defense team gives your team insights into how the other side thinks."

It's a creative article that's worth reading.