From Carlson, Calladine & Peterson LLP comes "The Development of Trial Themes in Catastrophe Losses," by Donald W. Carlson. Here's the tease from the CC&P website--
To persuade a jury, an attorney needs to develop case themes that help organize the diverse case facts and convey the case theory. This paper will identify three approaches to theme development, ways to test themes as well as the ability of witnesses to convey your themes.
While the article is geared to the defense of bad-faith insurance claims, it has much to offer any trial lawyer about the purpose and development of trial themes. Especially useful is a long section about using a mock jury to test the development of trial themes. As someone who has used mock juries in the past, both on the plaintiff and defense sides, I can attest that there's no better way to learn how you can improve the presentation of the your story well in advance of trial.
To get the full article, go to the CC&P article archive and scroll to August 2002. There you'll see a link to a pdf of the article. Unfortunately, I can't link directly.
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