Reinventing witness preparation : unlocking the secrets to testimonial success

In Reinventing Witness Preparation, seasoned litigator Kenneth Berman explains the dangers of conventional witness preparation, showing how the common approach to preparing witnesses can foul up a case and hand victory to the other side. This book introduces a new and enlightened approach to witness preparation: that witnesses need to give answers that actually help their cases, and the best time to give the best answer is when the question is first asked. In this book, you will learn: - How to empower witnesses to testify so the fact finder understands the testimony as the witness meant it to be understood - How to teach witnesses ways to give well-informed truthful answers that avoid pitfalls lurking in the questions - How to enable witnesses to answer ambiguous questions and yes or no questions in ways that support the theme of the case - How to protect witnesses from perils that conventional methods of witness preparation fail to prevent and often magnify - How to prepare witnesses so they can earn the fact finder's trust, build credibility, and prevail

• Foreword p. xi
• Introduction p. 1
• 1 Why Smart People Give Bad Testimony p. 7
• 2 Make the First Answer the Best Answer p. 21
• 3 The Danger in Saying Too Little p. 33
• 4 The Danger in Avoiding Ambiguous Questions p. 45
• 5 The Danger in Not Improving upon the Question p. 59
• 6 The Danger in "I Don't Recall" p. 73
• 7 All Witnesses Are Different p. 85
• 8 The Better Witness p. 97
• 9 Knowing and Preparing Your Witness p. 109
• 10 Why Tom Brady Got a Four-Game Suspension and What That Teaches About Witness Preparation p. 127
• 11 Yet, No, or Something Else p. 143
• 12 Answering Ambiguous Questions p. 155
• 13 Deficient Memory and Other Common Testimonial Issues p. 165
• 14 Witness Remorse and Testimonial Style p. 179
• 15 Documents and Impeachment p. 193
• 16 Direct Examination p. 221
• 17 Preparing Experts p. 221
• 18 Final Words p. 241
• Acknowledgments p. 247