Jurors feel better about patient care when patients are fully informed by their healthcare providers about their treatment – mistakes and all.
Read MoreThe Importance of Saying Sorry – Healthcare Litigation and Proactive Risk Management
January 20, 2014
Patent Case Timelines: Do you see what jurors see?
April 12, 2013
Timelines speak volumes to jurors in patent cases. They can tell jurors how valuable the patented technology is, how long the inventor has to “cash in” on his or her invention, and even whether the invention was “copied.” Seemingly innocuous events on a timeline – events that have no legal significance — can become the foundation for jurors’ verdict decisions; some can literally tell jurors the whole story of the case. The question is whether you can read a patent case timeline like a juror would?
Read MoreAnalogies on Trial
February 4, 2013
Attorneys and their expert witnesses love analogies. Even a casual Internet search reveals dozens of attorney websites that heartily endorse the use of analogies, particularly in jury trials. Not surprisingly, these endorsements often come in the form of analogies. Analogies are described as “the most powerful tool in your toolbox” or “as weapons are to […]
Read MoreThe “Black Box” Analysis: The Inventor Story
December 4, 2012
Jurors enjoy a good inventor story—they like to hear about the oddball who sketches his ideas on a restaurant menu or the scientists who fight their way to a unique solution. Told well, these stories put a human face on what can be cold technical cases. But inventor stories do more than just make the […]
Read MoreThe “Black Box” Analysis: A New Way To Evaluate the Strength of Your Patent Case
November 9, 2012
It’s no secret that juries often struggle to make sense of patent cases. The patented technology in dispute is often obscure and frequently resists the kind of “big picture” summarizing that helps jurors get their bearings in other cases. In patent cases, jurors rarely get an easy-to-understand concise story; they are instead expected to dive […]
Read MoreEarning Jurors’ Trust: Tough-Minded Company Witnesses
October 8, 2012
Product manufacturer defendants frequently offer jurors company witnesses who are overly cautious scientists or uncommunicative engineers.
Read MoreEarning Jurors’ Trust: Conduct before Causation
October 8, 2012
Conduct Before Causation: Order matters to jurors.
Read MoreEarning Jurors’ Trust: Empathetic Attorneys
October 8, 2012
Particularly in cases involving products that jurors or their loved ones might use (e.g., pharmaceutical or automotive products), it helps to have attorneys who are able to connect with jurors at an emotional, not just a cognitive, level.
Read MoreEarning Jurors’ Trust: The Company Historian
October 8, 2012
Manufacturer defendants often lack company witnesses who can tell the whole product safety story at trial, earning jurors’ trust by explaining to them how the company tested the product, how the company warned about the risks, how the company monitored the product on the market, and how the company reported what it knew to government regulatory agencies.
Read MoreProduct Liability Cases: Earning Jurors’ Trust
October 8, 2012
The plaintiffs in a case alleged that a chemical company—the product manufacturer—had failed to adequately warn its customers of its product’s risks. The manufacturer’s customers were huge oil companies who were obviously sophisticated and who were themselves minor manufacturers of the product at issue. They clearly didn’t need to be warned about the risks of the product.
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