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Traits of a Winning Trial Notebook

By adminjuse on November 2, 2016

A court date has been set, the coffee pot is full, adrenaline is kicking in, and you’re about to put together a solid case to wow the client. How confident are you that your presentation is going to wow judge and jury as well?

Presenting your case in court is the culmination of all the hard work put forth in its preparation. You’ve worked hard for your client, investigating the case, performing legal research, creating piles of briefs and memoranda, lining up expert witnesses, scheduling and calendaring, accounting for all billable hours, securing your evidence, creating exhibits, pouring over discovery, and making sure every I was dotted, every T was crossed. In all, you want your case presentation to be a work of art, and that’s why we’re here. We want to give you the framework to help you shine once you get to court.

We’ll tell you about our free Trial Notebook ebook in just a bit, but for this short intro, we’ll discuss the qualities your notebook should have that will help set you up for success when your case goes to T.R.I.A.L.:

Thoroughness – Have you included everything you’ll need and then checked it all again?

Reliability – Accuracy aside, does your notebook format work? Is it softcopy or hardcopy?

Inquisitiveness – Do your sections and forms prompt you to provide the right info?

Appearance – Does your Trial Notebook package command respect or is it a mess?

Logic – Is there a good intuitive flow to the layout of your material?

Thoroughness

There is nothing so fatal to a court case as a missed detail. While you don’t want to be repetitive, the more important an event is the more a little redundancy is your friend. You want to include everything you need and have some good cross-reference. Some thoughts to keep in mind:

  • Work from forms, templates, and checklists. Don’t leave Trial Notebook assembly to chance or memory.
  • Review everything with your client and your presenting attorney(s) as you go along. Waiting until the last minute does nothing but ensure missed detail and a nervous client.
  • Create an “Index and Reference” section like you would find in a text book. For example, have one list showing your Document Control numbers in order along with the items they represent, list your witnesses in alphabetical order, your e-discovery files by name, and list all other electronic file names in order with a description of their contents.

Reliability

Just how can a notebook be “reliable?” Simple. It’s usable and does everything you would expect. In this case, the goals are to both house and safeguard all of your pertinent organizational data and intel, and to be ready to provide that information to you exactly when you need it.

  • The heart of your system should be a hardcopy three-ring binder. Though most offices are trying to “go green” and conserve paper, there is a time and a place for a paper-based organizer. Trial is that time and place. Binders don’t crash like computers can.
  • Most of us were raised on paper-based books and handwritten notes, and we’re still faster at navigating a tabbed notebook than a computer file.
  • Any computer you bring in to court should use a reliable operating system and you should have a power cable, a charged battery, and all pertinent accessories.
  • Your soft-copy media should come in a couple of formats just to make sure you can reliably access each. Have one copy of the file loaded on your computer and have a CD or DVD copy in addition to the files on a thumb drive.

Inquisitiveness

A trial would be useless if you didn’t question anyone or anything. Why? So you don’t miss a single detail. Your Trial Notebook should do the same for you… provided you set it up right.

  • As the saying goes “The dullest pencil has a better memory than the sharpest mind.” – (Author Unknown). Your forms and checklists will help you remember what to do with final notebook content review, on the day of court, and for making sure you have all the main items and support items you’ll need to ensure your presentation in court is complete, thorough, organized, and successful. “When in doubt, write it out!” Don’t leave important things to memory. Set your Trial Notebook up so that it asks you the right questions before you ask questions in court.

Appearance

People shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but they do. It’s just a fact of life. For example, your personal appearance should be as professional as possible, especially when you’re in front of the client, court, or opposition. Your Trial Notebook should maintain a professional appearance as well in order to command respect from the jury, confidence from your client, and to intimidate the opposition.

  • You don’t want to spend too much money on notebooks, but make sure the ones you get look good and match the folios and binders you bring with you to trial.
  • All paperwork should be in some sort of binder, folio, or labeled box, and again, they should look like they all came as a set. Don’t take anything loose or unbound into court.
  • Neatness counts, even when it’s only your people seeing the contents. Make sure all spelling is correct, typestyle is uniform, grammar is good, the layout follows office protocol, and all copy is legible.

 Logic

The most thorough and detailed Trial Notebook in the world is going to be useless unless the presenting attorney can understand the layout and logic of how everything in the notebook is organized.

  • The first consideration is, “Who is the lead or presenting attorney for the trial?” Though your firm’s notebooks should be standardized you still should consider the type of case being tried as well as the idiosyncrasies of your presenting attorney. Do they prefer hardcopy or computer? Do they like large print or small? Do they respond well to color-coded / highlighted text or bullet points?
  • Though one attorney might prefer one certain format over another, keep two things in mind. One, there should be some uniformity, and two; your redundant backups should mirror each other as much as possible. For example, if the attorney prefers working from an electronic copy of the Trial Notebook and the laptop crashes, the hardcopy binder should be laid out in the same fashion as the softcopy version.
  • We can’t stress this enough: work from forms, checklists, and templates.
  • Though you gathered a lot of data for your case, keep in mind that the Trial Notebook is not meant to house everything, but rather, it is to be the main organizer or index of your materials and an outline of your case. Use other folios, folders, binders, and boxes for the peripheral documents. Keeping the Trial Notebook’s contents concise and to the point makes for easier navigation which is much more logical.

Sadly, in such a short article we can only speak in generalities with your Trial Notebook. There are so many types of cases. You might be working either side of civil or criminal, tax or tort, paternity or product liability, contract or malpractice, family or corporate. However, trials do have some foundational elements to them, so we’ll give you the framework you’ll need that will help you prepare the best Trial Notebook you possibly can.

Tips for hiring a lawyer

By adminjuse on October 12, 2016

Just because someone is hanging a license to practice law as an attorney, they are not necessarily the right lawyer for you. You need to provide the needed time to conduct an investigation before you choose the right lawyer to represent your interests.

A personal recommendation is the best thing to start. Most people have contact with a lawyer or if not, they at least knew someone who had used the services of a lawyer. Try to find an attorney who specializes in a particular field. As more specific lawyer, he usually has a high flying hours on the case in the specific field.

Arrange a brief meeting with the attorneys that have been recommended to you or an attorney you have selected as potential prospects. This will strengthen your confidence to a lawyer, the extent to which he is able to deal with your problems later. Most lawyers would agree for a free consultation at a time and this is your chance to ask the tough questions, request a list of previous clients as your reference material  or cases ever handled before.

Check the background of the lawyer, a good education and work experience, and learn how they manage their practice. If a lawyer can not manage their own business properly, it is a sign that they will never be able to help you with both.

Find out the local rate per hour on average lawyer in your area or request information from friends who had just finished hiring the services of a lawyer. Then compare the identity, accessibility, flexibility and personality to determine if the specified sense. Attorneys have set rates and fees, so be careful if an attorney wants to know how much budget you prepare / have for your case. Make sure that the cost of legal services will be listed in writing (black on white), complete with detailed bills.

Bankruptcy When All Seems Lost

By adminjuse on September 21, 2016

When experiencing an economical debt issue, your problems might first tend towards the food in your home, the outfits on your children’s supports, or the transaction for the home you’re living in. It can be easy to forget that on top of all of that economical debt can have a extremely dangerous impact on your credit score rating, and can bring legal effects if you’ve been constantly irresponsible or dismissive of collection agencies.

Most individuals reaction is the evade their failing economical predicament by turning towards short-term solutions, such as the terrifying payday cash advance. Despite the point that these loans bring beyond reach attention levels, most individuals in serious economical debt are too concerned with the day-to-day success of their household to consider more reasonable options to take care of their economical predicament in a sensible manner before relying on unavoidable bankruptcy.

The most terrible aspect about economical financial debts are that it is often avoidable by following simple economical methods. Those who spend more than they earn without considering their month-to-month flexibility, make unexpected buys, or ignore even the most basic factors of keeping the budget identify that they can keep on to a money about as well as one can keep onto water. Identify these actions and others to avoid from getting into this scenario again – or making your bad case even worse.

Debt lovers may be impolite and harmful, but it’s their job. Even more important, they might not even be a issue if your borrowers were aware of your economical predicament. Most reliable organizations are willing to pay attention to individuals under extenuating conditions and change the conditions of the financial loan based on your economical scenario. After all, for the most aspect their end-game is getting money from you under conditions that you can manage – not drive your credit score into the ground and end up with a late financial loan.

CSR as a Business Legal Environment

By adminjuse on August 7, 2016

The business environment today is undergoing changes so fast and dynamic. Today many new companies that have sprung up in the business world. But not all of the new company, legal business organizations, many of which are founded not fit the rules that have been defined. Many entrepreneurs are desperate to set up a business without thinking about whether the business has sufficient legal and legitimate in the eyes of the law. The paradigm is the underlying importance of the regulation of the legal environment of business. In addition to the many companies that do business in violation of the existing laws, there are many companies that respond less positively draft rules on corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Company in running its business activities shall observe the state of the environment, not to the company’s activities cause an imbalance of the natural environment which would be fatal later. Flood that occurred lately, one of which is that because many firms in carrying out its activities do not view the environment as an important factor. Many of them are building his company in the water catchment area, dispose of waste or residues of chemical production is not in place until the water becomes polluted and the public who will feel the impact. Yet now, the issue of corporate social responsibility is one of the important issues that must be considered by companies to be a good company (GCG) if they carry out their corporate social responsibility. But however the company is not ignoring all of CSR, many of them are very concerned about the welfare and safety of the surrounding environment. In addition, the establishment of a company based rules that have been set can be a mirror low quality of the production company, the low awareness of compliance rules, less productive regulations produced by government, even at the higher rate reflects a lack of understanding and awareness of the legal environment of the company.

There are many things that must be considered in order to conduct business activities as the main purpose of profit or gain or the maximum benefit to be achieved, can be fulfilled according to the targets set. An employer should consider the factors that may affect it, the factors that affect it comes from two sources, from the internal environment, come from within the company itself and the external environment, and from outside the company. Both of these environments need to be synergized in order to achieve optimal results in running a business. Legality of a company or business entity is very important, concerns the survival of the company is not only for the short term but also for the long term. If a legally established company, according to the rules and regulations that apply it to the future business activities will run smoothly and will not hit the legal issues that can ultimately result in bad performance and image on the company itself. For it should be known more about what-what are the requirements that must be met by the company to carry out its business activities in the legal environment.

Bankruptcy lawyer – Guide to hire

By adminjuse on July 1, 2016

For family members and individuals who are really being affected by economical debt in regards to their income, bankruptcy can signify to be a new beginning to your life and a constant economical upcoming. In other circumstances, processing a bankruptcy is the most economically reliable action a person can take. Based on the section of bankruptcy that you want to follow, you can either pay off the economical obligations or complete those economical obligations. Also, bankruptcy helps quit those aggressive phone calls from lenders who will call you every time challenging for their transaction and to quit property foreclosure of your qualities. That is accurately why attorneys open gates for your help. Lawyers will do the best to make sure that you are not in any confused with those economical obligations and they will work with you in every individual step to develop a lighter upcoming for you.

In other cases Bankruptcy can be a very problematic and therefore you need not to take a position alone while being affected by it. Do not be unclear to search for legal counsel from the qualified attorneys when you are working with bankruptcy problems. Lawyers welcome all potential customers and are very ready to assist you in any individual possible way out. The rules can as well give a speech to borrowers to have a say to their present economical problem and help them to get over it. If you are confused with your economical debt, attorneys can help you to figure out if bankruptcy can benefit your case because there are many bankruptcy options available to match all individuals needs.