Ben B. Rubinowitz

Decedent, Steven Frosh, a 42-year-old father of 4, worked for the New York City Department of Sanitation. On the date of accident he had exited his “broom,” a large street sweeper, and was struck and killed by a truck passing on his left. At the time of his death, decedent had 18 years on the job. He planned to become a certified financial planner when he retired from sanitation in 2 years and had already developed a “book of business” setting up retirement plans for sanitation workers throughout the city. He had completed a course to become a Certified Financial Planner, but he had not yet been certified. A friend who worked at Morgan Stanley provided a statement indicating that based on his “book of business” he would have hired Steve. At the time of his death the decedent was married. His children were 11, 7, 5, and 4 months old.

This part of the program will feature (Ben, Brian, NR) questioning jurors about:

• Pain and Suffering awards
• Economic loss
• Medical Maintenance
• Wrongful Death cases
• Difficult Comparative fault issues
• Laying the groundwork for a large award
• Working with Juror’s answers given during voir dire in Summation

Too often lawyers move through jury selection in a rote manner — proceeding mechanically and repetitiously. It’s as if jury selection is thought as a one size fits all event. Nothing could be further from the truth. If conducted properly lawyers can use jury selection as a bridge which will make for a more meaningful opening statement, more powerful direct and cross examinations and a compelling, winning summation. The ability to create carefully crafted questions and the ability to listen to the answers is what this talk is all about. The ability to deal with the tough issues — the preexisting injury, the criminal convictions, the prior vicious, criminal or immoral acts — will be featured in the talk. Dealing with money damages and how to fully explore the all important damage questions will be dealt with head on in this talk. Real life examples from decades of jury selection will be explored.