JANUARY 2025 | 15 THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff. TRIAL PLANNING The next thing to do early on is start looking for the theme6 of the case. The theme is just a short phrase – a sentence or two that helps you sum up your client’s position in the case and helps separate your case from the hundreds of others the judge is hearing. Some themes our firm has used in the past, for example, have been “runaway mom,” “greed beyond the grave,” “big guy vs. little guy” and “set up for failure.” Explain to the client what a theme is, what it does and how it ties the facts together to make their case memorable. Next, after your client has shared the facts of the case, the two of you need to work together to prepare an outline and timeline of relevant events. For example, what events led up to the divorce? When we say relevant, we are referring to the events the judge needs to know that support the items in your request for relief. The request for relief and outline of events will serve as the basis of your case. Then, create a little story for each of these events. We call these chapters.7 As you are preparing chapters, you will hear things from your client like, “Oh, I’ve got a picture of that,” or, “I have text messages [or emails] supporting that!” This is the kind of evidence that will become the exhibits for your chapters. Throughout the case, work on crafting these chapters and obtaining what is needed for the supporting exhibits. Create a chapter index and an exhibit index, and Bates stamp the exhibits. Do this throughout the case so that if the client mentions a worthwhile new event or story, you can easily create a new chapter and start pulling together the relevant exhibits. Don’t rule anything out, as it is best to gather as much information and create as many chapters and exhibits as possible. Keep those chapters and exhibits together, index them, and Bates stamp the exhibits so they’re easy to find. When a client comes in with a big stack of text messages, photos, etc., take the time to go through them and Bates stamp them. There’s nothing worse than losing something critical to a case. Also, by letting the client see the chapters, exhibits and indexes, you are showing them that they’re part of the team. Ultimately, the client knows the facts of the case better than you do. They have lived it, so they can update chapters and assist with their case as an integral part of the team. MEDIATION CONSIDERATIONS In addition to preparing for trial, you need to take several steps to prepare for mediation. By the time mediation rolls around, you will know exactly what your client wants and why. Being armed with this information and what you learn from opposing counsel will allow you to properly advise your client about the range of settlement options. You will be able to tell your client whether something is or is not a good deal and what they likely would be facing if they go to trial. You will also be able to give them at least an idea of the best, likely and worstcase scenarios. Throughout this process, your job in getting a case ready for trial is, first, to work with the client to determine all of their goals, starting with the end goals, and then take all the facts and boil them down to the information, evidence and exhibits that are needed to present to the court. This is ideally to arm the judge with the information needed to rule in your client’s favor and achieve all of your client’s predetermined goals. Movie director and producer Ridley Scott said, “I think ... filmmaking is a team, but eventually there’s got to be a captain.”8 As the lawyer, your role is like that of a producer or a captain of a team. The recent movie Top Gun: Maverick was pared down from more than 800 hours of footage to its running length of two hours, 10 minutes.9 Despite the overabundance of solid footage that might have been included, it was condensed to only the very best takes. That is like your role as a trial lawyer – sifting through good material to find only the best for trial. CONSIDER THE AUDIENCE As we think about the judges in our cases, we know they are very hardworking and have a lot of pressure on them to be efficient and move their dockets along. They want to help people and take a lot of cases when the parties are unable to settle. Because trial time is a precious resource to all judges, the more we can boil down the relevant evidence and present it to the court, the more efficient, effective and successful we are in the courtroom. Besides facing enormous time pressures, judges’ attention spans and focus are limited, just as they are for all of us. Judges are human, after all. TED Talks present some of the greatest ideas and information being shared in the world today, even though the maximum time limit for each one is 18 minutes.10 TED Talks presenters have no choice but to boil their presentations down. Our attention spans
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