How to decide on the story you want the jury to hear: Some tips

Friend and colleague Diane Wyzga has written an article on legal storytelling that I believe many of you will want to read. The beginning:

Imagine the Following: a two-lane road in San Jose, California. Late morning. Skies are clear and the road is dry. Driving on this road from the west is a flatbed truck. And driving on this road from the east is a fire truck. Behind the fire truck is an 18-wheeler we’ll call a ‘semi.’ And behind the semi is a 4-door passenger car. The young man who will become Tommy Malone and Randy Scarlett’s client is seat- belted in the rear as a passenger behind the driver. Now imagine that the flatbed truck begins to drift over the yellow centerline. The captain driving the fire truck notices this and pulls to the right avoiding a collision. But the semi does not take any evasive action. The driver of the semi is talking on his cell phone. And he has been talking on his cell phone for thirty minutes. When does he notice the flatbed drifting over the centerline? When the side view mirror of the flatbed crashes into the side view mirror on the semi. The flatbed peels down the side of the semi before breaking its front axle. Now out of control the flatbed moves in a great arc before coming to rest with a life-shattering T-bone crash into the very spot where the young man sits. Who is to blame for the traumatic brain injury he suffered? And how did you arrive at your position?

Randy Rozek and Gordon Johnson asked me to write about the process of working with the award-winning trial team of Malone and Scarlett to help revise the trial story which ultimately resulted in their $49 million trial verdict. Specifically, Mr. Rozek asked me whether it was possible to expand on my thought process and provide some tips you could use in your own practice. I agreed, although unraveling a thought process is much like recalling a dream. ...

Click to read the rest of “This Is Not a Cell Phone Case” (Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group Newsletter) [pdf].