Client & Witness Testimony Prep

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BUT a single witness sure can lose one! 

Your heart is pounding, you're holding your breath... and you're just the lawyer watching the testimony. Because all you can do now is pray the cram session stuck. That's a terrible position to be in, and it is completely avoidable. 

The R.I.S.E. method will leave a jury with that most critical of impressions—I believe them and believe in their case. Jurors may forget details and may not take good notes about details, but the conclusions they reach will not contradict their gross impressions.

Most of us were brought up to meet with our clients for an hour or so on the day-of or day before their deposition. You know the deal - tell them all the things they cannot say, give them canned phrases to memorize and repeat, and cross your fingers. 

Tell them things like "only answer the question asked; if you do not understand the question, don't answer it," and so on. Then give them legal terms of art and tell them to parrot those in their testimony, thinking this will insulate them from dispositive motions. Tell them to say things like "the defendant was negligent" and "the defendant fell below the accepted standard of care." 

The Result: Your client becomes even more nervous than they were when they arrived. They remember a couple of the rules for the first half-hour or so, but as soon as they get pushed, it all goes out the window. And you spend the rest of the case on the defense, trying to explain what they really meant to say. 

It is only a "personal injury" if the plaintiff makes it so through their testimony. The R.I.S.E. Method gets them there.

The R.I.S.E. Method doesn't ask your witness to use legal words they don't understand. It doesn't ask them to know or understand the standard of care or memorize a complicated script full of peculiar terms that are not a part of their vocabulary. It frees your witness from legal jargon.

The R.I.S.E. Method™️ focuses on arming witnesses with their own word bank and rules that are so rooted in their story, they don't have any trouble recalling and presenting under stress. 

The Method has four parts:

• Reassure
• Identify
• Simplify
• Empower

The R.I.S.E. Method™️ is about moving past getting our witnesses to say particular lawyer-authored turns of phrase. It is about opposing counsel - and their decision-maker - leaving the deposition knowing that your witness feels in their heart as the truth and will articulate that in a credible way to the jury. In a personal injury case, it is about them leaving the deposition with notes knowing this person has genuinely suffered and will connect with the jury in a powerful, emotional way. 

To help our witnesses "R.I.S.E.," we have to reassure them, help them identify what it is they are feeling and know as their truth, simplify those complex feelings, and empower them with clear words in their own language that explain those feelings. 

ProvenFocus applies the R.I.S.E. Method™️ over a series of sessions which - depending on the witness - can range from one to two hours each and occur over two to three weeks. It includes homework and sample depositions to review in a tailored packet made just for them and their case. By the end of the process, the witness has become clear and rooted in their truth, has shed any fears of testifying - or learned how to embrace those fears - and has learned simple rules that empower them to feel confident in their role in the case.

ProvenFocus applies the R.I.S.E. Method across multiple disciplines and witness types, including experts and lay witnesses. You can learn more about those applications through Jennifer's Trial Guides presentations: 

• Preparing Expert Witnesses for Deposition and Trial
• Preparing Lay Witnesses for Deposition and Trial

Clients and witnesses are rightfully apprehensive because they are entering a strange world that they have only seen glimpses of in movies and on television.  They are scared it is going to be like they’ve seen in the movies where the lawyer is yelling at them OR that they’re going to be caught in a legal trap that could cost them financially or result in them being incarcerated.  Many clients are so fearful of trial that they would rather take an unfair or unfavorable settlement. 

There is no question that ridding them of these fears and getting them fully prepped is the only way to truly successfully try your case. 

BUT: Who has time to do thorough witness prep while running a firm or a heavy docket? You have to focus on liability, the medicine, the science, the strategy, the offense, and the defense.

Yet proper witness preparation - clients, experts, and eyewitnesses -  is vital to a case's survival and value.

That's why bringing in an outside perspective to see the facts through fresh eyes is the way to go. More importantly, bring in someone who has the time and experience to put in the work necessary to get your witness ready.

Reach out to ProvenFocus to chat about how we can help.