Sach Oliver · Edward Ciarimboli · Phillip Miller

NEXT LEVEL DEPOSITIONS AND TRIAL STRATEGY

From the brains that brought you the Advanced Depositions Strategy and Practice guide comes this bold and transformative new program. Developed alongside the faculty that has been teaching the fundamentals of Advanced Depositions for over a decade, this next evolution is specifically designed to take your deposition and trial skills to the NEXT LEVEL!

THIS IS NOT A REVIEW OF FUNDAMENTALS! It’s a deep dive into advanced techniques that deliver real impact in the deposition and beyond. You will master the use of rhetorical questions, clean language, the Miller Mousetrap, building and using case-specific visuals, develop tools for dealing with obstructive witnesses and defense attorneys, and much, much more.

9:00-10:00 Reducing Witness Obstruction

• Preparation of the witness Before You Ask

• Commitment to the Oath

• Educating the witness on procedure, including objections

• Mirroring

• Using exhibits to control

• Using Cognitive Load to elicit truthful responses

• Dealing with “it depends”, “not always”, and schooled evasion

• Handling the witness who wants to repeat their case theories/facts

Topic Specific Tools and Demonstrations Provided: Specific introductory questions to reduce evasion, Mirroring practice, using cognitive load to control a witness, a template for dealing with the “it depends”, “not always”, “not necessarily” response that can be part of your materials for every deposition.

10:15-11:15 Basic Skills to Discover Everything the Witness knows, and protect yourself from changes in testimony

• Open-Ended Questions

• Exhaustion

• Boxing-in and “4 Wheel Drive” (facts, witnesses, documents)

• Restating and summarizing

• Dealing with Rabbit Trails

Topic Specific Tools and Demonstrations Provided: How to structure an open-ended question that will facilitate exhaustion of the witness’s knowledge or recollection with minimal effort by you as the questioner, boxing in responses that make changes in testimony incredible.

11:30-12:30 Using Clean Language Technique to elicit testimony, insights, and metaphors that can change the case outcome.

• Why and how Clean can blow open testimony in ways that cannot be anticipated by defendants.

• The 3 Basic Clean Questions you must know

• Identifying when Clean should be used on a witness's answer

• Identifying gestural metaphors that can be used to expose things a witness doesn’t want to say.

Topic Specific Tools and Demonstrations Provided: Demonstrations of Clean, provision of the “Clean Cheat Sheet” that can be part of your materials for every deposition

2:00-3:00 Establishing Standards of Care & Conduct/Rule with Defense Witnesses

• Importance of 30(b)(6) Notice

• The Miller Mousetrap

• Finding the “right” rule for your case

• Using Rhetorical questions to avoid objections and have the witness

Create the rule.

Topic Specific Tools and Demonstrations Provided: Demonstration of creating mousetrap questions that make a difference, provision of a Mouse Trap Template that can be part of your materials for every deposition.

3:15-4:15 Eliciting Testimony that is the foundation for Deposition Exhibits and that force commitments and/or polarize witnesses on key case issues, including:

• Agree/Disagree (including fault, recklessness)

• Yes/No Matrix

• Rhetorical questions

• Continuum Lines

• Organizational Chain of Command or Control

• Time Lines (the Sach Oliver 2x4)

Topic Specific Tools and Demonstrations Provided: Examples of questions used for each kind of exhibit, and integrating them into your deposition outline with the draft exhibit to be adopted

4:30-5:30 Creating Your Own Visuals for Depositions with Examples and Templates

• Agree/Disagree

• Yes/No Matrix

• Rhetorical questions

• Continuum Lines

• Making your exhibit part of the deposition record

Topic Specific Tools and Demonstrations Provided: Using spontaneous creation of exhibits using Butcher pads, iPeevo, etc.