Friday, December 23, 2011

BEST WAY TO LEARN CROSS-EXAMINATION IN CIVIL CASES

Learning Cross-Examination Techniques by Experience

The best way to learn how to conduct winning cross-examinations in civil cases is through experience. Cross-Examination Handbook offers opportunities for cross-examinations in two civil cases that can be used in either professional development workshops for practicing lawyers or law school classes.

Case Files, Actors’ Guide and Teacher’s Manual

Cross-Examination Handbook comes with all the materials necessary for role-play performance exercises for cross-examination strategies and skills, including: case files; an Actors’ Guide with instructions for the witnesses, and a Teacher’s Manual (100 pages) covering how to conduct the cross-examination exercises as well as a schedule for professional development workshops and a syllabus for law school classes. The two civil cases are Rufus T. Jones v. Brahmin Preparatory School and Terry O’Brien v. Jamner County. Both fact patterns are based on actual cases.

Terry O’Brien v. Jamner County


The O’Brien case involves a single car rollover accident (pictured left) which resulted in the death of the driver, 32-year-old Terry O’Brien. O’Brien was driving an eight year old Suzuki SUV southbound on Pioneer Road when the vehicle had drifted off the west edge of new asphalt that had recently been applied to the surface of the road. There was neither channeling nor traffic control signs or devices on Pioneer Road in the construction area.

Rufus T. Jones v. Brahmin Preparatory School

The Jones case involves Rufus T. Jones, an African American teacher, who sues Brahmin Preparatory School, an elite private high school, claiming racially disparate treatment and retaliation against him for engaging in the protected activity of opposing what he believe to be incidents showing discrimination against faculty of color.

The Assignments

The class or CLE workshop assignments for cross-examination correspond to chapters of Cross-Examination Handbook and provide practical experience in the areas covered by the chapters. For example, chapter 6 covers how to impeach a witness with a deposition and assignments and Case File materials are provided so that law students and practicing lawyers can perform an impeachment with a deposition. The versatility of the materials allows the instructor to select as many or as few of the assignments for the students/attorneys to perform as the instructor wishes to cover.

Each assignment comes with suggested reading, which the instructor may assign. For instance, the instructor may assign readings in Cross-Examination Handbook to which the assignment is cross referenced with suggested selected readings for each assignment.

For more information about the two civil cases and Cross-Examination Handbook, visit the book’s website here. Purchase Cross-Examination Handbook by clicking on image of the book in the right column.



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