LSNYC Senior Counsel Victor Olds Writes for NYLJ’s “Tips From the Bench”

Whether relatively new to the courtroom or a veteran litigator, trial lawyers come to learn, both through formal instruction and by experience, that there are many ways of approaching the fundamental tasks of opening statements, direction examination, cross examination, registering objections and summations, each of which is an essential component to trying a case successfully. Legal Services NYC Senior Counsel Victor Olds conducted interviews of more than a dozen state and federal trial judges to obtain their views on these basic, but critical areas of trial practice, and wrote about his finding’s for the New York Law Journal’s “Tips From the Bench.”

From the September 12th article:

When asked just how important opening statements are to the prospect of a successful trial outcome, the judges polled are universal in their view. “Extraordinarily important,” says U.S. Southern District of New York Judge Denise Cote, “because of their potential to influence a judge or jury concerning the manner in which they should view the forthcoming evidence.” For this reason “the lawyer should seek diligently to engage the judge and jury with a thoughtful, focused preview of the facts they can expect to learn during the course of the trial.” Several of Judge Cote’s Southern District colleagues agree wholeheartedly, one of whom goes so far as to consider the opening to be the “single most important aspect of a trial.” Judge Raymond J. Dearie, former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, suggests one reason for this as going to the nature of opening statements. In the main, he says, they provide an opportunity for lawyers to do a number of important things, including:

1) present the jurors with a preview of the issues and arguments that will arise in the case;

2) educate the jury regarding both matters on which the trial will focus and the nomenclature unique to a particular type of case (such as, for example, defining terms of art like a “put” or a “call” in securities-related litigations); and

3) introduce herself to the jury as a person whose trust she will be seeking to secure.

And, adds Southern District Judge Victor Marrero, an effective opening statement is one that not only provides the judge and jury with an overview of what the evidence will show and how it will serve to establish the lawyer’s theory of the case—something which State Supreme Court Justice Alan Marrus likens to a movie’s “coming attractions”—but that also provides the fact-finder with a reassuring “roadmap” of the general direction of where the case is going and of what to expect at various points along the way.

Read the full piece at NYLJ.com.