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This is an edited excerpt from an article written by Edward T. Kole in the June 2021 edition of New Jersey Lawyer , focusing on trial advocacy and preparedness. Read the full article, which offers details on how to prepare for the cross-examination, and issue here (login required). Here are some tips to make your next cross-examination of an expert during trial more effective. Brevity is essential. You want the judge or jury to retain the core points. The longer you take and more extraneous information you go over, the less likely you will be effective; Hit the issues you need to hit. Pick out the major points you want to make ...

This is the third installment in a series. The webcast of “Tackling Virtual Jury Trials During COVID-19” is available in the NJICLE on-demand library. Read the other installments of this series at the NJSBA blog . Sarah Gilson, of Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd in Oakland, Calif., who tried California’s first virtual civil trial during the pandemic—and one of the first in the country to go from jury selection to verdict—is convinced that completely virtual trials are the way to proceed. “I can only encourage people to be willing to go straight virtual. I think it is the cleanest way to try your cases,” said Gilson, a panelist at the recent ...

This is the second installment in a series. The webcast of “Tackling Virtual Jury Trials During COVID-19” is available in the NJICLE on-demand library. As the state ramps up virtual jury trials, judges and attorneys at a recent New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education program, “Tackling Virtual Jury Trials During COVID-19,” shared insights about what works in that format—and what should be avoided. The program’s panelists included Monmouth County Assignment Judge Lisa P. Thornton and Judge Andrea Marshall, who participated in a recent mock virtual trial, and Sarah Gilson, of Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd in Oakland, Calif., who last ...

This is the first installment in a series. The webcast of “Tackling Virtual Jury Trials During COVID-19” will be available soon in the NJICLE on-demand library. With the first of a two-phase rollout for virtual civil jury trials underway this month in several New Jersey counties—expanding to all counties on or after April 5—attorneys need to know how to remotely empanel a jury. While there are challenges to remotely picking a jury and to trying a virtual case, there are practices that can help set up an attorney for success, said Michael G. Donahue, a managing shareholder and civil trial attorney at Stark & Stark in Lawrenceville, who moderated the ...

Knowing your audience, being prepared and being authentic were among the tips that court veterans provided at an NJSBA Annual Meeting program for trial lawyers. A panel of esteemed members of the New Jersey Supreme Court, U. S. District Court, and a seasoned practitioner gave some of their best tips for attorneys in litigation. Attorney David Kott of McCarter & English, LLC in Newark moderated the program that featured Justice Jaynee LaVecchia and Justice Anne M. Patterson of the state Supreme Court, U.S. District Court Judge John Michael Vazquez, and attorney Brian J. Molloy of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A. in Woodbridge. The panel explored ...