Presented By: DRI and Courtroom Sciences, Inc

What is quite common in today’s court¬rooms is foreign-born, English-speaking witnesses whose role is to convey believ¬able, persuasive (and critical) testimony to a panel of jurors. There is a misconcep¬tion among trial attorneys and corporate counsel that the “language barrier” is the primary obstacle to effective courtroom testimony with foreign-born witnesses. The heart of the matter is that foreign-born witnesses are often very poor com¬municators in the courtroom, not because of the language barrier, but rather because of deep cultural traits that hinder their ability to get their messages across to ju¬rors. With millions, if not billions, of dol¬lars at stake in civil litigation matters, the unique verbal and nonverbal communi¬cation challenges associated with foreign-born witnesses can leave trial attorneys and their clients economically vulnerable in the courtroom. Therefore, as the country continues to diversify culturally, and the number of foreign-born witnesses contin¬ues to increase over time, trial teams will need to alter and supplement their witness preparation efforts. This program will help explain who foreign-born witnesses are and in what types of cases their testimony is commonly seen. It will address the linguistic and cultural bar¬riers that are likely to present themselves and will also offer practical advice about the key preparation steps that should be taken before a foreign-born witness testi¬fies. 

Who Should Attend: 

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

What Will You Learn?:

• How to identify and understand cultural barriers to communication
• How jurors perceive foreign-born witnesses
• Differences between cultural barriers and language barriers
• How to improve credibility and believability of foreign-born witnesses
• Common witness preparation mishaps with foreign-born witnesses