Presented By: DRI and Courtroom Sciences, Inc

In litigation, fact witnesses are the “messengers” and jurors’ perception of their credibility, believability and honesty is critical to success in the deliberation room. But time and again, attorneys and claims managers want to figuratively “shoot” witnesses when poor deposition and trial testimony increases financial exposure and decreases strategic leverage. The path to effective witness testimony starts early in a case and remains important at all points in the litigation timeline. During discovery, each deposition has an economic value to a client. Strong, effective depositions decrease a client’s financial exposure and costs, while weak, ineffective depositions result in higher payouts on claims during settlement negotiations. Therefore, the deposition setting is a critical battleground with potentially heavy casualties for a client—a large check to the enemy. At trial, attorneys and clients can only sit back and collectively grind their teeth and wince during poor testimony, as their leverage and money get sucked out of the courtroom. This program will discuss the most common type of witness testimony breakdowns, and how to prevent them prior to deposition and trial.

Who Should Attend: 

• Defense Trial Attorneys
• Claims Specialists
• In-House Counsel
• Risk Managers

What Will You learn?:

• How to detect cognitive, behavioral, and emotional witness vulnerabilities
• How to maximize witness cognition and avoid amygdala hijack issue
• How to defeat Reptile questioning
• How to gain maximize credibility during cross/adverse questioning
• How to persuade jurors during direct/rehabilitation questioning