By Don Keenan
Sometimes I even surprise myself at how well the Reptile© works and especially the stuff I developed.
I’ve always known that the Keenan method of witness preparation was toxic and game changing, but I never realized the real depth.
Many lawyers contact or come up to me proclaiming that when I said the system will make your client the best witness of the case, thought I was maybe exaggerating. Their stories convinced them and convinced me that it’s not an exaggeration.
You know we all know that the system removes the client’s guilt, destroys negative attribution, and arms them with their Major Truths. The most powerful thing it does, however, is what my good friend, Jim Fitzgerald, said to me at the very first Welcome to the Revolution in May of 2009, where I showed the system and as well a number of video clips showing the transformation in the clients. Jim in a truly excited utterance said the system makes the client authentic. Truth and sincerity drips from their pores.
It wasn’t until Jim’s revelation that I really understood the true power of the system. Jim was absolutely right, it makes the client authentic. Not only will the jury believe an authentic witness they will embrace them, protect them, celebrate them, comfort them. It’s as if the witness is what the juror wants to be.
Powerful stuff, but it wasn’t until a recent trial that I recognized the true nuclear power, let me explain.
This was a case where a young man in his 20s had suffered a severe life-changing TBI and we were suing the defendant for having caused in part, not in whole, the TBI. There were other parties involved that settled. In the face of this TBI injury we had some pretty good experts so the defense knew the target. They had to point to another reason for the damages or at least another reason that would mitigate full responsibility by the defendant.
Unfortunately, there was a sea of collateral information about the boy’s early childhood. His mother and father fought like hellcats. The police were called on dozens of occasions. The uncontradicted evidence was that the wife had struck the husband a number of times. He refrained from hitting her, but instead, hit the wall, hit the car, and hit the refrigerator. All of this was documented in the public records, either the police reports or the multiple requests for restraining orders, it was all there. My referring attorneys made a gallant effort to keep out all of this and filed all the motions in limine. However, the Black Hats were able to convince their experts that this evidence was extremely important to understand the real cause of the boy’s mental condition. As ridiculous as it was it nonetheless played to the focus group and we were concerned.
The father and I bonded in a unique way. He was 350 pounds plus, had hands big enough to look like they already had a boxing glove on them, and he looked intimidating. I did the witness preparation myself, which I often do, because I think it is just that important. So I knew full well what his testimony was and he made it through Step 5 of the process, the gut check, and Number 7 on the system, the promise, so I knew he was ready to go.
This was a protracted trial, to say the least, and when I put the father up first, it was at the end of the day, and I knew I only had 30 minutes, but I wanted to condition the jury on the core of this man. I went straight for the bottom line and asked him “What’s your purpose in life?” He didn’t hesitate and said, “My purpose is to be the best father to my boys that I can possibly be.” Then in keeping with my who, what, when, where, how come method of direct examination, I then followed up with that statement by asking him, “Why”? He then took a deep breath and said “I had the worst childhood possible. I was beaten, humiliated, and told I would never amount to anything constantly. Please don’t’ feel sorry for me because the whole time I was telling myself, and God, if you’ll permit me someday to be a father, I will promise on my soul to be the best father there’s ever been.” So we’re about five minutes in to the direct exam and already the jury is showing emotional empathy.
I don’t know what else I covered in the next 25 minutes but it was not memorable and not much.
I put the father up the next time at about two to three weeks later, and once again, towards the end of the day so I would only have 30/40 minutes. This time I covered everything this remarkable man had ever done for his child and the nightmare that the defendant’s conduct had put his family and son through. Once again the emotion on the faces of the jury was palpable.
I always knew that we were going to have to have all the bad stuff, the dirty laundry, come out, and of course, I knew I had to bring it out first. The next time I put the father on the witness stand it was about another two weeks later, but I put him up early in the day, because I knew this was going to be a long one. My first question was something like, “We got some dirty laundry in the closet we need to bring out to the jury. Do you know what I mean?” He said yes and then I asked him if he was prepared to tell the truth about everything so the jury gets to have all the facts. He answered yes.
Then, at that moment, as if a miracle happened, the Black Hat stood up and said, “Your Honor we need to have a bench conference.” So there we were, huddled around the judge, and the Black Hat says, “I suspect Mr. Keenan is going to go into all of the domestic abuse matters.” I said, “Of course I’m going to get into it because you’re going to cross-examine on it.” The Black Hat then said, “Well, Your Honor we’ve decided not to.” Now sometimes I wish good stuff would happen just because I visualize it, but that doesn’t happen. So this time I didn’t know if it was true or a mirage. So I launched into an itemization of all the stuff that had been the subject of the motion in limine, and put on the record that none of that was coming in, not only with the father but any other witness. And the Black Hat says, “That’s correct.” I could barely hold my excitement to know that a man that I had come to feel close to was not going to be subjected to a sliming in the courtroom.
Now, you obviously know that the Black Hat did not decide to go into the bad stuff because I was going to get into it. Any average plaintiff’s lawyer is going to get to it before the cross-exam. That wasn’t it. There is no question that they saw how the jury was relating to the father, their emotional response, their body language and they knew full well that that jury believed he was authentic and they were going to protect him. They also knew full well that any attempt to slime the father would backfire incredibly. Believe me they didn’t do it because it was the right thing to do. They did it because they knew it would hurt them more.
Now I’ve been using the Keenan method of witness preparation for nearly 25 years and I have seen it settle cases and win trials although I usually get the credit. But never did I see a phenomenon like I witnessed in that case.
The judge reminded the Black Hat that we had spent nearly 2 days on all the motions in limine directed to the bad stuff and how hard they had fought to get it into evidence. But the judge was also seasoned enough to tell the Black Hat it was the right thing to do. She knew it would backfire on the Black Hat.
Bottom line: If you’ve never used the Keenan witness preparation method or never viewed the DVD series, get it now and you will be amazed beyond your perception.
Testimonies for the Keenan Witness Prep method:
- I just finished what was probably about my 20th preparation of a client using the Reptile© This is a love hate relationship for me. I have to say I hate it because of the time that it takes. I look at all the work I have to get done in my other cases and wonder how I’m going to do it.
I love it because of the time that I get with my clients. The trust relationship that is built in the three days is worth every minute. Using this method, I have had work comp awards of $1.7 million and $500K. I have had several denied cases where the client received significant awards at trial, mainly because of the client’s credibility. I’ve had six figure soft tissue verdicts in cases which easily could have been defense verdicts without the Reptile© Depo prep.
The client I prepared for tomorrow’s deposition is a wonderful young mother who is now girded with the truth to battle a royal ass. I am looking forward to sitting beside her and watching her in action.
Anyone not using the Reptile© Depo Prep is missing out.
I just had to share. Take care,
Jim Fitzsimmons
- Amen!
I prepped a client for a depo last week. On the first day she sat down nervous and very afraid of the “unknowns.”
At the end of the second day, she was confident and comfortable and really wanted to get at it. The other lawyer came in and was woefully unprepared. He took a 20 minute deposition (didn’t know my client had had knee surgery) and then left.
My client wasn’t relieved when it was over, she was pissed that she didn’t get to tell all of her Major Truths. I had to laugh.
Like you, Jim, I have plenty of other great stories just like it I could share.
Matthew A. Lathrop
- All,
This is not what Michael asked for, but was mentioned in the Blog and it impressed upon me the importance of being all in on the Reptile©. I have a case that I consider a good case (maybe better than that), but I have been concerned about the client and, mainly, his wife, regarding their testimony at depositions that we have coming in a few weeks and at trial. I have insisted that they and I spend the time to truly and completely follow the Reptile© method of witness preparation.
To do this, I separated them and prepared them individually. It took more time to do it that way, but yesterday it all began to come together. There was a breakthrough with both of them. The client revealed inner feelings he has not even told his therapist which will be extremely powerful (and those are the words used by two different people in my office) who never say that and were not involved. Second, the wife was, for the first time, a decent witness. She was apart from her husband and revealed a number of things that she felt (not bad about the husband) but how it has destroyed her life. I believe that both of them will perform well in the depos and, ultimately, at trial. Before, I did not think this was true. Needless to say, at trial, I will ask the jury for permission to not have them present or, at least, for him to leave during her testimony.
To all of you, if you don’t have the video, get it. If you have it, use it. If you haven’t watched it recently, watch it again. It is amazing what you get from people when you shut the hell up, listen and let them talk to the point where you get their innermost feelings. Please do yourself and your clients a favor and follow this method, it PAYS OFF. Thanks.
Jim Lyons
- Ok, I hate to admit this, but I have been a bit skeptical of the witness preparation bit. Honestly, I have bit hook, line, and sinker on the Reptile©. I believe it is a way of life if you are going to be doing just about anything. I have started the long process of completely changing my practice and the way I handle cases. It takes a while to implement. One thing I was not grasping was the witness preparation. So I bought the DVD, but I didn’t watch it right away. Well, I watched it and still wasn’t seeing the entire picture. I read up on it more.
Well, I have a sexual harassment trial against our lovely former Sheriff in September and a deposition of my client coming up. I started looking at my calendar and realized how few days I have between now and the deposition, so I told my client on Sunday we need to meet today. I had let someone borrow my DVD, so I got it back and watched some of it last night as well. I figured, if I’m going to do this stuff I need to do it right, even if I’m a bit skeptical. I have literally done thousands of client preparations in my 10 years of practicing law on all different types of cases. My client is a Sargent in CID and a tough woman. She has been a cop for eight years, so she has had to develop some thick skin being an attractive, slender young women working with a bunch of cops. I told her I need to write down her fears, concerns, etc and meet me at 7:00 this morning. Well, as much as I probably bungled the delivery, I started going through the first part. Before we go through the end of her list of fears, there sat, her guilt. I just knew that she wasn’t going to have any guilt. Shit, she had done NOTHING at all. Hell, she brought up the guilt without me pressing her on it. We talked and talked about (or I just listened and nodded my head). Then we developed her major truths. Now I didn’t really know how to do it so I just asked straight from the outline “The defense will blame you for what happened, and you didn’t do anything to stop it or enough to stop it.” Well she blew my hair back and rattled off 10 great things. Just rattled them off. Got some really great stuff and it was her great stuff. Man we squeezed some lemons this morning. Then after she was finished I asked, “What if they say it was welcomed sexual advances?” Man she let me have it again. Every bit of proof that there is. After squeezing all these lemons, I asked one final question, “Now, what would you say if they say it just didn’t happen, that you are lying?” Her face actually got red and she told me all the hell that she has gone through and that there is not enough money in the world to have done this and there is nothing she can do to take this back and we finally got to her biggest major truth, “SHE HAD EVERYTHING TO LOSE TO COME OUT AND TELL HER STORY, AND NOTHING TO GAIN. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.” We got done and she just sat in a chair in my office totally exhausted. After about 5 mins she said, I have never been through anything like this. This was amazing, thank you. We just sat in silence until she was ready to go. We were only at it for about an hour and a half. I had court at 9:00, but I was not going to leave. I was determined not to rush anything. I ended up being about 20 mins late, luckily the judge was as well.
I can tell you now I am 100 percent on board with the witness prep method of Don and David. I’m sure they would be embarrassed at how much I tried to screw it up, but one thing I never did was cut the client off or ask anything remotely suggestive. I did pause a lot to try and figure out how to ask questions. And I think I may have not got one or two small lemons, but I have never gotten that much relevant information out of a client. If you are not doing this on witness prep, then you are just cutting yourselves short.
Sorry for the long email, but hopefully someone will find it useful.
Douglas “Monte” Tynes, Jr.
- Mates,
I’m please to tell the group that Dad and I obtained a $125,000 jury verdict in favor of a deserving client today. Charles Yeargan did an excellent job presiding; Tom Curry defending.
They offered her $7,000 initially. $9,000 offer of judgment after the case was filed. $60,000 two days before trial. The defense lawyer told me he could probably get $70,000. The client instructed me that she didn’t have anything to lose with that and rolled the dice. We asked for $495,000.
It was a double aggravation case. The client has Charcot-Marie Tooth (CMT) disease … which is a progressive debilitating condition that affects the extremities. The records were weak in that there wasn’t alot on the wreck making the CMT worse. The client also had a bunch of degenerative findings 8 months before the wreck; she ended up getting two steroid injections in her neck that didn’t help her. She then started seeing her treating chiropractor before the wreck, who made her better. She was pain free 7 weeks before the wreck. After the wreck, she’s still treating about twice a month.
The defendant was a 16 year old kid who just got a permit. He testified he was going 35 mph near a school zone when he rear ended the client. The client rear ended the person in front of her. The frame of the client’s Tahoe was bent in 4 places. The kid’s dad is a used car dealer in DeQueen. According to the client, his family owns everything in these parts. However, everyone knows the dad is an ass. We kept the dad in on parental liability in the hopes he had screwed someone on the jury over in the past 25 years.
Past medical bills were waived. The judge excluded the defense lawyer from talking about them the day before the trial.
Our theory of the case was that the wreck caused the client’s neck injuries, which caused her to be less active, which is what made the CMT worse to the point that she couldn’t work. The defense lawyer wanted to talk about the client applying for SSD based on CMT instead of the wreck. The judge excluded it as a collateral source; and kept it out despite repeated attempts to get it into evidence. He thinks he has an appeal on that.
Great client; great family. Her two kids, husband, mother in law, and best friend testified on her behalf, in addition to her treating chiropractic physician. The defense lawyer made it out like the chiropractor made all his money on PI cases, even though it was his first time in court in 24 years of practicing.
Although she had a $231,000 loss of income claim, I’m happy the client is getting some money, but she definitely deserves more.
Thanks to all who responded in helping us getting ready to try the case.
Taylor Chaney
- Joey McCutchen wrote:
Good job. I’m glad to see that you waived medical bills and used the strategy we studied at our Arkansas reptile retreat in Fayetteville! Danny Ellis (Tenn), Alvin Wolf (Missouri) , and Mindy Bish (Calf), each spoke by Go To Meeting about their success with the strategy. We talked in our monthly Reptile© meeting on Monday about setting another retreat soon. Again, great work. Look forward to learning more from your trial experience. I’d like the retreat to focus on Voir Dire and Reptile© depositions. There is a lot of new things in these areas that we need to make sure we are all up to speed on. We will have the black letter law brief done shortly.
- Thank you again for speaking to us during our AR-Reptile© Group Retreat last fall! Your success and encouragement inspired us to take a leap of faith and try something new to waive past medical bills in the amount of $12,000+, which we think was a major factor in not anchoring yesterday’s verdict. And thank you Joey for inviting them to videoconference with us!
What do you all think about being tight lipped about this strategy of waiving past medical bills, and not posting to the general ArkTLA listserver nor talking about in the ArkTLA magazine? The Black Hat in our case thought we were crazy in waiving past bills, and told the judge he “couldn’t understand why we would do that.” The longer we keep this away from the defense lawyers, the more opportunities we will have to ambush them. The key to success with this strategy is to have an order in limine filed to prevent the Black Hat from making any comment about the failure to ask for medical bills. Amend the complaint to not ask for past medical bills, so it is not relevant, and that is the basis for the order in limine.
One major key to our $125,000 verdict was Judge Charles Yeargan’s willingness to excuse for cause jurors who said they could not follow the law concerning the aggravation of pre-existing condition element of damages. And bias toward chiropractors to the extent they could not be fair as a juror.
The clerk notified 100 people to show up for jury duty, and 79 were present, because the Defendant Daddy was a well-known car dealer and the clerk suspected we could have a problem seating a jury. Five were excused for: aunt of defendant, hard of hearing, medical appointment and two went church with plaintiff.
The judge refused to strike 3 school teachers who taught school with the Defendant Son’s wife, and one whose father worked for Defendant Daddy (who claimed he would not be biased in the least).
The judge struck 14 during my voir dire. But it was close. After I identified a large group having a problem with pre-existing, the judge went out of his way to rehabilitate them. Fortunately, I was standing near where Taylor was sitting, and he whispered to go back to the old lady who said “no way” could she pay anything to a plaintiff with pre-existing.
BE A WOODPECKER!
I went back to the old lady and had her talk some more about “no way” could she be impartial. Then I did my own rehabilitation of the large group who were opposed giving anything for pre-existing. This time the judge excused them all as a group of 8 or 9 people. It was gratifying to see a large group of tort reform jurors exiting the courtroom together.
I always voir dire on who does not like chiropractors (and never ask who likes chiros, or you will identify who the defense will strike). I think there were 5 in this group who the judge excused as a group.
I don’t know if Taylor has notes of the others of the 14 excused for cause during my voir dire, which I think included one or two who did not believe in giving anything for pain and suffering.
Black Hat Tom Curry gave the most vicious closing I have encountered. He really polarized the case by outright accusing plaintiff of scheming the whole case after she was hit by the 16 year old son of the town’s biggest car dealer, told the police officer no injury, and then going to the ER after her Tahoe was dropped off at a friend’s house. Curry said plaintiff knew from watching TV commercials that she was supposed to get a lot of money after getting hit. Curry said plaintiff had motive due to degeneration in her spine shown by an MRI eight months before after a slip on ice and catching herself on a vehicle, resulting in arm pain, for which she saw many doctors for and then eventually went to Chiro Wolfe. After six weeks, Dr. Wolfe had her doing well. She did not see Dr. Wolfe during the 7 weeks before crash – and Curry accused Dr. Wolfe of destroying his records during this time period. Client went to work part time for Dr. Wolfe’s clinic the last few years, and Dr. Wolfe was accused of helping with the fraudulent scheme.
Client also had CMT – Charcot Marie Tooth Disease that is genetic and common in her family, which primarily affects the lower limbs. She was a clumsy cheerleader in school and had trouble with falls all her life, and learned to “fall gracefully.” Both of her sons had CMT and testified about having to learn to fall gracefully. Client’s mother had CMT and was in a wheelchair since her mid-60’s, and her grandfather wore braces. Curry portrayed plaintiff as having a progressive, debilitating pre-existing conditions, and schemed to cash in on the “accident” with a 16 year old kid to take care of her future financial needs. We claimed that Client’s CMT was aggravated, along with her degenerative condition.
Taylor did a good job delivering a Reptile© Opening by the book, worked hard in preparing plaintiff and key witnesses using Reptile© techniques, and gave a by the book Reptile© closing. I did the rebuttal closing focused on polarizing that was helped by the Black Hat’s vicious closing, and ended with a conscience of the community theme.
Allstate offered $7,000 to plaintiff presuit and called me. I told her not to cash the check. After suit was filed for this 2009 mvc, there was a $9,000 offer of judgment filed. Not much in the way of settlement negotiations until 2 business days before trial, when Allstate offered $60,000 and the Black Hat said he might could get $70,000. Client considered and rejected the offer. She was pleased with the verdict after seeing how the process worked, and had a much better appreciation of the risk of a poor result we warned her about. Everyone in the courtroom heard the shouting behind the jury room door during the first hour of the two hours of deliberations. We were a bit disappointed the verdict was not higher, but it could have been a lot worse.
There is an article about how Allstate “redesigned” its claim department to take away all adjuster discretion in evaluating auto injury claims, mandating that the Colossus report number was the maximum settlement authority amount, putting “The Boxing Gloves” on the Good Hands if the claimant will not accept the lowball offer, and then to use hardball tactics of “Delay, Deny and Defend” in using the civil justice system as the “Kill Box” to finish off the claim.
Our firm has been focused on handling UIM + Bad Faith claims against Allstate for almost 10 years. This includes going to the home office in Illinois to authenticate the 140,000 pages of claim department manuals and documents implementing “CRRP.” The UIM bad faith cases are the best way to hammer Allstate and return the favor of what it has done to our clients and us since the 1990’s. Some states have recognized a new tort of “wrongful defense” based on these wrongful claim handling methods, which would be fun to pursue in Arkansas with the right case.
We have a trial starting next Tuesday where we have teed up the same kind of UIM + Bad Faith against State Farm for doing the same thing in abusing its own policyholder in the same manner third party claimants are abused. State Farm “redesigned” its claim department before Allstate did. The cheating by these largest carriers resulted in extra billions of dollars of additional annual revenue when they stopped fairly paying claims. This cheating created a competitive advantage over other carriers, and the rest is history with most other carriers doing the same thing.
Wish us good luck in giving the State Farm Big Bully a bloody nose!
Don P. Chaney
- It was a 3 day trial ending around 1:30 p.m. with no lunch break.
Plaintiff’s direct exam by Taylor took 26 minutes, with at least a 1.5 hour withering cross. During a break without jury present, after more grilling by the Black Hat to make a record after the judge excluded a Social Security Disability document claiming disability from CMT (and no mention of mvc injuries), our client’s pain intensified causing nausea and she puked (part of her pain pattern).
When she rose from the witness chair with her hand over her mouth, and her husband yelled, “She is going to puke,” I sprinted to grab a waste basket under the court reporter’s desk, and met the client moving fast off the witness stand. There was no time to spare as she vomited into the waste can in my outstretched hand. Another form of courtroom drama!
Most of plaintiff’s story was told through her family and friend witnesses. Plaintiff went last.
The trial broke nicely to where the third days was instruction, closing and deliberation when the jury was fresh. Late night verdicts rarely favor plaintiffs. At 4pm, on the second day the judge asked the jury what they preferred, stay late and finish, or come back? I heard some voices about staying and finishing because they were already there. I spoke up and said to the judge that I suggested he tell them it could take several hours to finish. The eventual jury foreman (an R.N. instructor at a local community college) picked up on this, and then lobbied the others to come back the next day. And they did. At that point we had a good idea about who the foreman would be.
Don P. Chaney
- Our client told me over and over and over how intimidated she was by the defense lawyer. I spent several hours with her getting her to understand her major truths (I never called them that) on several different occasions. I was a little nervous about it, but she did well in her deposition so I figured she’d do okay at trial.
When the Black Hat got up on cross, she let him have it. It was like watching a prize fight. I was really proud of the way she handled herself on the stand. She ended up being her own best witness.
Thanks to David Ball, Papa Don, and everyone else for their input, and teaching us how to arm our clients and jurors.
Taylor Chaney
- Don,I’m writing to thank you……again and again.On Friday we settled a case for $300,000. The CTLA believes you can’t get over $100,000 on a soft tissue case. You need surgery to crack that threshold for settlement.My case was a rear end wreck. My client’s car was drivable. She didn’t seek any treatment for 4 days. She treats with a chiro and some with a neuro. There is about $20k in chiro bills on the file. The neuro can’t find anything objectively wrong with her.I get on building her case with damages. We blow them out of the water with fact witnesses. We prep our client using the Keenan methods on your DVDs. I send her for a life care plan. Scared the defense. The defense then sends the client to the biggest defense hack IME in the state. He of course finds she’s a malingerer. We focused grouped this issue. The focus group didn’t buy it one bit.Heading into mediation, we destroyed the IME doctor by getting transcripts. The mediator concluded he was the best thing about OUR case.I deployed some of the deposition techniques that I learned in Atlanta this January. Defense counsel and defendant had no idea what to do. The defendant ended up stating the rule in my case “you must keep your eyes on the road” without me prompting him. I hit him with some humanization stuff.
We showed some of the focus group stuff to the mediator. He was impressed. He knew we could have tried the case that afternoon if we had the opportunity to pick 6. Me and co-counsel lived off of Keenan Edge 1 and 2. Great stuff on blowing DME’s out of the water.
Prior to Reptile© coming into my life, I would have looked at this and been happy with $60,000. Most of the damn Bubbas in this state would pat themselves on the back for 60k on these facts.
Anyhow, the case would have gone to trial in early July. Once the settlement gets confirmed, I will book the Keenan Ball College in July in Boston. Now my calendar is free and the accountant says I have to spend my money. No better place to spend it than with you.
Also thank you for sending me Advocates United. I’m excited to learn more. I hope to find a way to make this happen for my firm.
Thanks again. It’s not the largest verdict/settlement I’ve had but it’s damn rewarding. Someone taught me “there are no small cases”.
Ryan McKeen
- Keenan witness prep pushed us over the finish line.
Mediator was great. He had some legitimate concerns about our case. I made the call to have him voice those concerns to my client. He did. Her response blew him out of the water.
He went from trying to twist our arms on 175k to getting their defense to paying us 300k.
We had prepped her using your methods for trial…scheduled in two months.
But she was armed to the core with her truths and had no guilt. She was a rock star to the mediator as a result. All I had to do was get out of the way. My work had been done over three sessions of prep.
It’s caused me to entirely rethink mediation prep for a client. It can be every bit as important as depo and trial prep.
Woodpeckers,
If you have not purchased and watched and re watched the Reptile© Witness Preparation DVD, you have to. I hear all the time “this will change your practice.” This one really will.
It’s been several years since the DVD came out. I had read the three preparation steps in one of the books, thought I could figure it out without spending the money. Nope. Got the DVD about a year ago. Put off watching it. Finally, had a road trip alone and converted by own bought copy to MP3 so I could at least listen to it on the road. Holy Cow! Epiphany! Light bulbs blowing out and sparking!
I’ve prepared three clients for their own depositions since listen ending to the DVD multiple times. There are 7 steps. Each necessary. Necessary to go in order. Frustrating at times. Hugely rewarding in the end. Each time has taken about twice as long with the client as I expected – time with client is one of the best things you can do for success. One client went from a timid meek self-deprecating little follower to a serious straight forward witness who swift boated every defense herself at her deposition. Another was so confused and overly explanatory. This seventy year old great grandmother understood what made her tick (abusive father), why she felt like no one would believe her if she didn’t just keep explaining and explaining. She was dynamite at her deposition – sweet, but firm, swift boating every defense thrown at her – and gave the other lawyer unshirted hell when asked how a shoulder injury had affected her life – she spontaneously rattled off about fifty normal things everyone does daily without thinking but give her trouble or are impossible for her to do, then had a good deep heaving cathartic cry. Afterwards the defense lawyer was talking with me about getting his “client” to pay; I talked about wanting to try the case, and I do.
It’s not just a wonderful system for the client. It’s very freeing for the lawyer. How many of us learned to go over every interrogatory response, every possible question type, how to answer every type of question, every trick and trap, and basically found the client so overwhelmed with information on how to answer questions that it really wasn’t effective at all? Ever show your client a DVD or video to prepare? Guilty as charged. As with so many other things since the Revolution, you can throw all that out the window. Don has obviously thought about why we do anything we do and countless times has thrown the conventional method out the window in favor of what actually works.
Think about it – if your client has about 7 major truths, that they own and can return to every time, does it really matter if they don’t recall the name of every doctor they ever visited, every minor injury to unrelated parts of the body, every job ever held, the dates of every starter marriage, or any of the other background info that takes a majority of every deposition? All that is collateral to the main event. And once the client understands their truths and how that fits in with what the defenses are going to be so they can be their own best advocate, every minor detail, every other type question, is just noise.
Another big up side is bonding with the client. If you think you have a good bond beforehand, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Trust. Appreciation. That feeling that you have gone through something important together.
I’m a big fan of the EDGE method of instruction – Explain; Demonstrate; Guide; Empower. The books give us the Explain part real well. The seminars give us the first two. That’s probably enough for some people to “get it”, but not me. Without me practicing and working through a technique myself, I can talk about the theory all day long and pass a written test, but can’t work it well in real life. That is why I go to the KB College courses. The College gives us all four. The Witness Prep DVD gives you the first three and you are ready to empower yourself and will see it the first time you use it the way Don lays out for you.
I have not been asked to write this. It is just such a big deal I want to spread the news. Some of you are no doubt saying “No shit, Grist, we got that four years ago, what took you so long?” That’s fair. I was late to the Reptile© and my wife is happy to tell you the only thing between my ears is expanding foam.
I’m not going to list the seven steps. Get the DVD. INVEST THE TIME. I hope Don never lists all the steps on the blog or the words he uses that flow so well with the client. Get the DVD. INVEST THE TIME. Your practice will change for the better; I promise, warrant and personally guarantee it.
Joel Grist, Attorney
- Joel, I have also been working and using the Kennan witness prep for my clients. I have to agree and my clients are more than ready to deal with defense lawyers and their tactics. I think this is a great tool and I urge all to start working this into their cases.
Robert L. Clements