Pretrial Advocacy, Planning, Analysis and Strategy (3rd Edition)

Trial advocacy is where the glamour resides; the grist of book and film. But pretrial advocacy is the game. Most cases never get to trial, settling in negotiation or some form of ADR*, or resolved in pretrial or summary judgment motions. The book follows this crucial pretrial process in roughly chronological order - developing the attorney-client relationship, interviewing and investigation, discovery*, client counseling, motions, ADR*. For each of these topics the text devotes a chapter guiding the students' approach to the particular skills performance by offering examples using on-going hypotheticals, checklists, and textual explanation. Seventy-eight accompanying exercises to chose from (both criminal and civil) provide opportunity for hands-on experience with the various skills performances (interviewing, taking depositions, and such). All the exercises in turn are based upon a single, rich and very realistic case file which supports both a criminal homicide case and a civil wrongful death case.Two things make the book unique among advocacy texts: (1) the pedagogical approach of the book is directly guided by narrative theory and expert-novice schema theory and (2) the materials are throughout immersed both in current and evolving technology in law and the employment of visual persuasion. From Cicero to today advocates have perceived that telling persuasive stories lies at the center of their craft. It is therefore not coincidence that the first chapter of the book is an extensive discussion of Case Theory. Case Theory, which connotes the strategic approach advocates develop in a case to persuade the factfinder to accept their narrative, guides every skills performance discussed in the text and brought to life in the exercises. Further, in order to take students along the journey from novice to expert, in addition to placing primacy on the advocate's focus on case theory, the authors chose to base all exercises on the single, elaborate case file already mentioned rather than employ endless new one or two paragraph fact patterns. In our model, students live with the case and, like real trial advocates, are forced to create their story (and translate the story into admissible information) from a vast array of documents, witness statements, and doctrine. As a consequence of this pedagogical approach, students come to legal issues and strategic decisions with a sophistication only possible within the nuanced context provide by a real understanding of the underlying characters involved and their reflection of the vagaries of the human condition. With every exercise, moreover," planning questions" take students through both strategic and ethical considerations which an advocate realistically might face in a similar situation. The centrality of planning and preparation thus provides a fundamental cornerstone of the author's pedagogy. Finally, in an accompanying DVD, students see an expert litigator take a deposition and use it at trial, further aiding students in grasping the world of the expert advocate.Additionally, the book reflects the emergence of technology and visual persuasion in law practice. In addition to the deposition video, the DVD which comes with the book has a video tour of the crime scene, sample computer animations, a settlement documentary, a software slide show of mediation exhibits*, and mediation videos*. The book includes an extensive discussion of E-discovery* (with accompanying exercises*), and a chapter on using visuals in ADR*. Current technology in law is further manifested by a superb advocacy website supplementing the text that is continually updated with rich supplemental materials, including pleadings, relevant articles, and links to other websites.The book is accompanied by a clear, detailed Teacher’s Manual and a CD with an Actor's Guide, providing for role-playing witnesses in assignments from parties, to eye-witnesses, to a variety of experts.The Table of Contents and Chapter 1 are available to download at the link above. ____________* = Chapters that are new or significantly expanded in the third edition.