Regardless of which side of the courtroom you’re on, the right demonstratives in openings can be powerful tools to frame the message at the heart of your case. And in a trial last year against Monsanto over claims the company’s “Roundup” weed killer caused a woman’s cancer, a Katherine Hacker demonstrative that took inspiration from an iconic video game laid the groundwork for a major defense verdict. 

Defense surveillance video can be one of the most difficult pieces of evidence to overcome for a plaintiff’s attorney presenting a damages case. But in the latest episode of Trial Technique Spotlight, Shane Read, one of the nation’s leading trial consultants, details how Keith Mitnik flipped the message on defense surveillance video to win a $2.8 million verdict for a former college soccer player injured in a car crash.

Excerpts from Frank Bayuk's opening at trial against Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation of North America.

February’s $7 million verdict against Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation of America for the injuries a Georgia toddler suffered in a golf car rollover crash was keyed by powerful video intended to undermine a central defense in the case, an attorney for the child’s family told CVN. Hall, et al. v. Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation of North America, 20-A-1696. 

Wrongful death damages trials often turn a magnifying glass toward key moments of a decedent’s life, both positive and negative, when asking a jury to weigh the value of that life's loss. And in the latest episode of Trial Technique Spotlight, nationally renowned trial consultant Shane Read analyzes how an Arash Homampour closing argument powerfully acknowledged the negative moments of one man’s life, while also emphasizing its value, with all its imperfections, setting up a blockbuster verdict. 

Stock image. 

Santa Fe, NM— Jurors Thursday cleared R.J. Reynolds and a pair of retail chains of responsibility for the death of a New Mexico man who had smoked for decades. Youngers (Archuleta) v. R.J. Reynolds, et al., D-101-CV-2020-01693.