Trial Advocacy Book or How to Do a Trial in (several easy) Steps

While looking at information on the latest trial prep materials, I saw this recommendation from the Trial Practice Tips Weblog

The Book, Trial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis, and Strategy, while written for students, is also an excellent resource for practitioners, especially younger lawyers working on their first trials.

Described as a "how-to book for trial lawyers," Trial Advocacy is full of practical information about all the areas of trial you'd expect: jury selection, opening, exhibits, direct, cross, experts, instructions, closing. The book also includes a DVD in which "experienced trial counsel present" a mock trial based on the materials in the book.

Here's a sample tip from the book, chosen pretty much at random from a chapter titled "Cross-Examination of Experts"--

The expert's opinion may be vulnerable in the following areas:

* The time the expert had or used in analyzing the data (the doctor examined the patient for ten minutes; psychiatrist did not examine criminal defendant until ten weeks after the crime);
* Information was incomplete (the engineer did not receive all the blueprints);
* Expert is making an incorrect assumption about the data (the expert assumes that the core soil sample he was given was from "quadrant 4";you will present evidence that the sample was from "quadrant 3," which invalidates the expert's calculation);
* Expert received faulty or biased data (much of the data is from an interested party);
* Expert's procedures or experiments for analyzing the data faulty, unreliable, left undone, or wrong (a metallurgist failed to heat the metal to the appropriate temperature).

At almost 600 pages, it's a hefty book. You'll find a trailer for the DVD, sample documents, and ordering information at the book's companion website. You can also find the book at Amazon.