Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | September 8, 2009
Back to our originally-scheduled program: So you’re in jury selection, and you want to get the jurors talking about the things that maybe they’re not used to discussing in front of 60 near-strangers. What do you do? Well, everyone knows The Playing Doctor Rule: I’ll show you mine if you show me yours, right? That’s [...]
Mark Bennett | August 31, 2009
I want to make it clear that I don’t do foolish things like play beer pong or run marathons. But I draw inspiration from the foolish things that other people do. So the next Simple Rule for Better Jury Selection is The Marathon Rule, to wit: Save something for the end. There’s the possibility that, [...]
Mark Bennett | August 31, 2009
In Beer Pong, The ball is always in play. If the ball hits the floor, ceiling, wall or even leaves the room it can still be, and should be, hit back in the direction of the table. So it is in jury selection, except that “the ball” is the conversation and “the table” is the [...]
Mark Bennett | August 29, 2009
Jury selection is not only—nor even mostly—about selecting (or deselecting) jurors. If you use voir dire simply to find the jurors whom you want to strike, you're missing out on most of the value of jury selection. These rules will help you anyway.
Mark Bennett | August 25, 2009
We lawyers are analytical creatures. The LSAT doesn’t include a section of intuition puzzles. So Simple Rule 8 for Better Jury Selection is The Shrink (as in therapist) Rule: Rule 8: How Do You Feel About That? Jurors decide cases based on their guts, then look for intellectual reasons to support their emotional decisions. As [...]
Mark Bennett | August 25, 2009
Rule 7, also from improvisational theatre: Don’t block. In improv, blocking is when you take another actor’s idea, and negate it: “It sure is quiet here on the moon.”“No, this is the bottom of the sea.” Your partner looks bad, and you’ve killed a scene. In improv, if your partner says you’re on the moon, [...]
Mark Bennett | August 25, 2009
Rules 6 and 7 are timely, since they come from improvisational theatre and I just got back from four days of intensive improv training at BATS (I highly recommend the training). Rule 6: No scripts. I’ve written about voir dire scripts before. You’re not going to get very much information if you walk the jury [...]
Mark Bennett | August 21, 2009
Okay, those of you who identify themselves as “attorneys” and “Esquires”, and anyone else who likes people to know that he has a law degree and is therefore superior: listen up. This one is for you. The fifth Simple Rule for Better Jury Selection is blatantly stolen from and therefore named in honor of Chicago [...]
Mark Bennett | August 14, 2009
We lawyers love to hear ourselves talk. That can be the death of a jury selection. In a good voir dire, the jurors do most of the talking. Even if I can’t hear what the lawyer and jurors are saying, I can tell a good voir dire from a bad one by listening, as long [...]
Mark Bennett | August 14, 2009
They are once again on their way. They are walking through the forest. Shrek belches. DONKEY Shrek! SHREK What? It’s a compliment. Better out than in, I always say. (laughs) DONKEY Well, it’s no way to behave in front of a princess. Fiona belches Thence, Rule 3 of the Simple Rules for Better Jury Selection: [...]
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