Basic Advocacy and Litigation In a Technological Age - Center for

163 Pages·2005·3.54 MB·English

Excerpts from:
Basic Advocacy and Litigation

In a Technological Age
Traditional and Innovative Trial Practice
In a Changing World
Fredric I. Lederer
Josh Heslinga, William & Mary Law School Class of 2006, examines a remote witness in Monterrey, Mexico
as part of the 2005 Courtroom 21 Laboratory Trial.
August, 2005 Draft Edition
© 2005 by Fredric I. Lederer
Appreciation
To my colleagues, past and present, in the Courtroom 21 Project,
and especially Martin Gruen, who have collectively created in
the 18th Century city remembrance of our colonial past, and in
the 21st Century collegial law school of our present,
a portal to our future.
Dedication
To the innocent victims of September 11th
All the darkness cannot extinguish a single candle,
yet one candle can illuminate all the darkness.”
Hannah Senesh
2005 Edition Acknowledgment
The 2005 edition of this text was improved through the assistance of
Professor Stacy-Rae Simcox and the research, drafting, and support of Elizabeth
McElroy and Chris Dorsey, William & Mary Law School Class of 2007.
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EXCERPTS TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE – INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE – The Concept, Ethics, and
Technology of Advocacy
§ 1-10.00 REFLECTIONS ON ADVOCACY AND ADVOCATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
§ 1-20.00 THE ART OF PERSUASION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
§ 1-30.00 ETHICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
§ 1-40.00 FUNDAMENTAL PLANNING: STRATEGY AND TACTICS . . . . . . . . . . 5
§ 1-50.00 TECHNOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
CHAPTER THREE – The Relationship Between
Theater and Advocacy
§ 3-10.00 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
§ 3-20.00 VOICE AND SPEECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
§ 3-30.00 COURTROOM (STAGE) PRESENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
§ 3-40.00 EXHIBITS AND DEMONSTRATIVES (PROPS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
PART TWO - PRE-TRIAL PRACTICE
CHAPTER FIVE - Case initiation
and Discovery in Brief
§ 5-10.00 THE CASE BEGINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
§ 5-11.00 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
§ 5-12.00 Who, What, Where, When & Why? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
CHAPTER SEVEN – Motion Practice
§ 7-10.00 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
§ 7-20.00 WRITTEN MOTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
§ 7-21.00 Form and Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
§ 7-22.00 The Supporting Memorandum of Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
§ 7-23.00 Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
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§ 7-30.00 ORAL MOTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
§ 7-40.00 MOTION ADVOCACY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
§ 7-41.00 In General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
§ 7-42.00 Oral Argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
§ 7-43.00 Use of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
PART THREE - TRIAL PRACTICE
CHAPTER EIGHT – The Procedural Framework
Introductory Matters, and Trial Technology
§ 8-10.00 TRIAL: GOALS AND APPROACHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
§ 8-11.00 Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
§ 8-12.00 Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
§ 8-20.00 THE LITIGATOR'S MULTIPLE ROLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
§ 8-30.00 PREPARING FOR TRIAL: TRIAL STRATEGY AND TACTICS . . . . . . . 29
§ 8-40.00 TRIAL: THE BASIC PROCEDURAL STAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
§ 8-50.00 THE “CAST” - WHO'S WHO IN COURT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
§ 8-51.00 In General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
§ 8-52.00 Court Personnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
§ 8-52.10 The Judge and the Judge's Clerks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
§ 8-52.11 The Judge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
§ 8-52.20 The Court Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
§ 8-60.00 THE BEGINNING OF TRIAL - WHO SITS WHERE AND WHO
DOES WHAT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
§ 8-70.00 CLOTHING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
§ 8-71.00 In General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
§ 8-72.00 Counsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
§ 8-80.00 INTRODUCTION TO TRIAL TECHNOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
§ 8-81.00 In General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
§ 8-82.00 Evidence Presentation Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
§ 8-82.10 In General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
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§ 8-82.20 Presentation Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
§ 8-82.21 Video sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
§ 8-82.21(a) Document cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
§ 8-82.21(b) Digital Cameras, VCR’s, LaserDisk,
Memory Card, CD, DVD and Other
Forms of Storage Media . . . . . . . . . . 47
§ 8-82.22 Whiteboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
§ 8-82.23 Notebook Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
§ 8-82.30 Courtroom Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
§ 8-82.40 Evidentiary Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
§ 8-82.50 Operating the Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
§ 8-82.60 When Things Go Wrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
§ 8-83.00 Videoconferencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
§ 8-83.10 In General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
§ 8-83.20 The Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
§ 8-84.00 Court Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
CHAPTER TEN – Testimony: Direct and Cross-Examination
§ 10-10.00 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
§ 10-21.00 Where Do You Stand? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
§ 10-22.00 Sequence of Examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
§ 10-23.00 Objections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
§ 10-30.00 DIRECT EXAMINATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
§ 10-31.00 Selecting Witnesses for Direct Testimony . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
§ 10-32.00 The Leading Question Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
§ 10-32.10 In general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
§ 10-32.20 Appropriate Use of Leading Questions . . . . . . . . . 66
§ 10-33.00 Pretrial Preparation of the Witness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
§ 10-33.10 In general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
§ 10-33.20 Word choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
§ 10-34.00 Beginning the Direct of a Witness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
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§ 10-34.10 In general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
§ 10-34.20 “Crediting Questions” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
§ 10-35.00 Structuring the Direct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
§ 10-35.10 In general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
§ 10-35.20 The use of narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
§ 10-35.30 Identifying the defendant and other persons . . . . . . . . . 71
§ 10-36.00 Tactical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
§ 10-40.00 CROSS-EXAMINATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
§ 10-41.00 Purposes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
§ 10-41.10 In general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
§ 10-41.20 Affirmative Use of Cross-Examination:
The Witness Adoption Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
§ 10-42.00 Preparation for Cross-Examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
§ 10-43.00 The First Golden Rule: Don’t! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
§ 10-44.00 The Second Golden Rule: Don’t ask that question unless . .7.4
§ 10-45.00 The Third Golden Rule: Don’t ask that last question . . . 75
§ 10-46.00 Antagonistic Cross: Impeachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
§ 10-46.10 In general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
§ 10-46.20 The techniques of impeachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Chapter Eleven – Evidentiary Admission and Techniques
§ 11-10.00 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
§ 11-12.00 Evidentiary Substitutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
§ 11-13.00 Motions in Limine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
§ 11-20.00 INTRODUCING EVIDENCE; OPPOSING EVIDENCE; INTRODUCTION 81
§ 11-21.00 Marking Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
§ 11-22.00 The Foundation Requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
§ 11-23.00 Offers of Proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
§ 11-24.00 Procedure To Introduce Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
§ 11-25.00 Opposing Evidence Admission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
§ 11-30.00 DOING IT - SAMPLE FOUNDATIONS AND MORE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
§ 11-31.00 Witness testimony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
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§ 11-31.10 Calling the witness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
§ 11-31.11 The basic witness -
without crediting questions . . . . . . . . 86
§ 11-31.12 The basic witness -
with crediting questions . . . . . . . . . . 86
§ 11-31.13 Young child witness in a common law
jurisdiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
§ 11-31.14 Expert witness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
§ 11-31.14(a) In General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
§ 11-31.14(b) Medical Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
§ 11-31.14(a) Police Officer In DUI Breathalyzer Case 93
§ 11-31.20 Coping with limited recollection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
§ 11-31.21 Refreshing recollection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
§ 11-31.21(a) In general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
§ 11-31.21(b) Contesting past recollection refreshed 95
§ 11-31.22 Past recollection recorded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
§ 11-31.30 Impeaching the witness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
§ 11-31.31 Impeaching the witness with a prior act . . . . 98
§ 11-31.32 Impeaching the witness with a prior
conviction in a restrictive common
law jurisdiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
§ 11-31.33 Impeaching the witness with a prior
conviction in a federal rules or
less restrictive common
law jurisdiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
§ 11-31.34 Impeaching the witness with a prior
written inconsistent
statement (traditional) . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
§ 11-31.35 Impeaching the witness with a
prior written inconsistent
statement (technology) . . . . . . . . . . 101
§ 11-31.36 Impeaching the witness with bias . . . . . . . 103
§ 11-32.00 Documents and distinctive real evidence . . . . . . . . . . . 103
§ 11-32.10 Authentication and proffer of document or
distinctive real evidence (traditional) . . . . . 103
§ 11-32.20 Authentication and proffer of document or
distinctive real evidence (technology) . . . . 105
§ 11-32.30 Best evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
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§ 11-33.00 Real (physical) evidence - chain of custody . . . . . . . . . . 107
§ 11-34.00 Demonstrative evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
§ 11-34.10 Diagrams (traditional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
§ 11-34.20 Diagrams (technology) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
§ 11-40.00 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EVIDENTIARY RULES AND
TECHNOLOGICALLY DISPLAYED OR PRODUCED EVIDENCE . . . 113
§ 11-41.00 In general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
§ 11-42.00 The best evidence question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
§ 11-42.10 Electronically presented evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
§ 11-42.20 Electronically produced evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
§ 11-42.21 Scanned documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
§ 11-43.00 The authentication/digital alteration question . . . . . . . 117
§ 11-44.00 Computer animations: hearsay, scientific evidence
and unfair prejudice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
§ 11-44.10 In general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
§ 11-44.20 Hearsay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
§ 11-44.30 “Scientific evidence” concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
§ 11-44.40 Unfair prejudice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
§ 11-45.00 The display factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
§ 11-46.00 Remote testimony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
§ 11-47.00 Present and future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Chapter Thirteen – Introducing the Prepared Case:
Opening Statements
§ 13-10.00 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
§ 13-20.00 TIMING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
§ 13-30.00 CONTENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
§ 13-40.00 PRESENTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
§ 13-41.00 Introducing the Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
§ 13-42.00 Giving the Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
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Chapter Fourteen – Arguing the Presented Case:
Closing Arguments
§ 14-10.00 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
§ 14-11.00 The Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
§ 14-12.00 Basic Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
§ 14-13.00 An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
PART FOUR - APPELLATE PRACTICE
Chapter Sixteen – Appeals, The Procedural Framework
and Other Introductory Matters
§ 16-10.00 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
§ 16-11.00 Determining the Appellate Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
§ 16-11.10 Pretrial planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
§ 16-11.20 At trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
§ 16-11.30 After trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
§ 16-12.00 Bench Trials: Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law . 131
§ 16-12.10 In general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
§ 16-12.20 Findings of fact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
§ 16-12.30 Conclusions of law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Appendix A - Illustrative Motion Practice Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Appendix B - How to Avoid Apparent Disaster When Using
a Notebook Computer at Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
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