mock trial opening statement example

Plaintiff's Opening Statement Motor Tort: Part 1 and Part 2 (or read the entire first day of the trial to see it in full context) Defense opening (State Farm) Part 1 and Part 2. Most of these rules are likely based on the same ones that apply in courts in your state.Your witness’s testimony must follow the Rules of Evidence. 2. The most important part of any opening statement is its treatment of the operative facts.Although there is no recipe for determining which facts are necessary in a given case, you will no doubt want to include some or all of the following: The meaning and legal significance of events is often dependent upon their location.It is important, therefore, to use your opening statement to set the scene for the major events in your case. An opening statement provides the lawyer with an opportunity to address the jury in a trial and shapes the impression of the case and the jury. By watching examples like this, you can begin to incorporate these tips and tricks into your own opening statement. In the final analysis, the most successful opening statements are those that explain exactly how you intend to win your case. Emotionally based themes often serve as anchors, creating impressions for the jury that linger until the time the verdict is decided. Effective Opening Statements I. In addition, the use of rhetorical questions is inherently argumentative.For example, a suggestion of disbelief as in, “What could he possibly have been thinking of?” or a suggestion of incontrovertible certainty, “What other answer could there be?”Questions like these strongly signal argument when used in an opening statement. Introduction. Despite the drawbacks mentioned above, the judicious use of chronology is an essential part of every opening statement.Chronological development should always be used to explain independent events. Themes keep the jury’s attention and help them organize information. <> Finally, point out significant omissions in your opposing counsel’s opening statement.As all trial lawyers learn, the absence of evidence can be as telling as the evidence itself.Defense counsel should therefore be ready to respond not only to what was said in plaintiff’s opening but also to what was not said.While it would be argumentative to accuse opposing counsel of concealing information, it is perfectly proper to point out evidentiary gaps in the plaintiff’s opening statement by stating, for example, “What Plaintiff’s counsel didn’t tell you is that…”. It is also important to respond directly to the plaintiff’s version of significant controverted evidence.Simply telling your own independent story is not sufficient since that will not allow you to explain why the facts in support of your version are superior.It is also risky to expect the trier of fact to keep the plaintiff’s opening in mind and then to appreciate the implications of the contrary facts as you reveal them.Instead, you should make it apparent that you are contradicting the plaintiff’s factual claims. In every opening statement you must decide which facts to include and which to leave out.While you will obviously want to emphasize the facts that you find helpful, there is also considerable risk to telling an incomplete or illogical story. Accredited by the American Bar Association and the Higher Learning Commission. stream The defendant stands here falsely accused of _____, a very serious crime. Philip Moore robbed his lawyer, Mack Johnson. Get a clear understanding of who, what, where, when, why, and how. o Students will learn and be able to apply effective oral communication skills. Most judges recognize that “argument” is a relative concept and allows lawyers a reasonable amount of latitude.As with many other rules we have discussed, application of this rule will vary by competition and by presiding judge. Mock Trial Step-by-Step. Traumatic Brain Injury Plaintiff's Opening. The opening statement is where you win the trial. The opening statement also is your first opportunity to present yourself to the jury, and to Independent Student Organization located at The Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Auburn Hills Campus | 2630 Featherstone, Auburn Hills, MI 48326 | (248) 751-7800 To help you through the uncertainty involved in determining whether a statement is an argument, ask yourself the following questions: If the answer to any of these questions is or possibly could be “yes” you are probably arguing. to accept.The evidence can be described in a context of shared values or civic virtues so as to add moral force to your client’s position.In the fire truck case, for example, the plaintiff’s evidence will show that the plaintiff knew that it was important not to get in the way of a fire engine, and so she stopped to let it pass. Introduction The opening statement is one of the most important components of any trial. Activity Steps 1. A Sample Opening Statement. The order of the facts may be as important as the nature of the facts. The message here is that you should use nouns and verbs in your opening statement and limit your use of modifiers, which are frequently judgments rather than descriptions (and as such are argumentative).Words like heinous, brutal, and awful may convey the lawyer’s opinion about the nature of the crime, but they do not depict a vision of the event itself. Although it is improper to argue the credibility of witnesses in your opening statement, you may, and should, provide the trier of fact with facts that bolster your own witnesses and detract from the opposition’s.Bias, motive, prejudice, and interest in the outcome of the case are always relevant to a witness’s believability.Explain the facts that demonstrate your own witnesses’ lack of bias; include as well the facts that demonstrate the motive or interest of the opposition.For example: As should be apparent from the example above, the persuasiveness of an opening statement, indeed the persuasiveness of virtually any aspect of a trial, is often established through the use of details.Broad assertions can stake out territory and raise issues, but the truth will be determined by the details.An essential element of an opening statement, then, is the judicious use of details in support of the accuracy, dependability, or believability of your facts. Unlike final arguments, there is no rebuttal in opening statements.You only get to address the fact-finder once and without the advantage of knowing what the defendant’s theory and theme will be.No matter what your opposing counsel says, you will not be able to respond directly until the end of the trial.This can be especially troublesome in cases where the defendant presents an affirmative defense.Since an affirmative defense, by definition, raises issues that go beyond the plaintiff’s own case, the plaintiff faces a delicate problem in dealing with them during the opening statement.Should the plaintiff ignore the affirmative defense, thereby foregoing the opportunity to reply to it at the outset of the trial?Or should the plaintiff respond to the defense in advance, in essence forecasting the defendant’s case?Here are some guidelines to responding to the other side’s case. %���� First, state your denial right up front.The civil plaintiff’s opening statement, and even more so the criminal prosecutor’s, is essentially am accusation.Its entire thrust is to tell a story that accuses the defendant of negligence, breach of contract, criminal acts, or some other negative conduct.After hearing such an extended charge against the defendant, the trier of fact’s first inclination will be to ask the question, “Well, is it true?”The defendant, then, must respond with a denial.Anything short of a denial is likely to be regarded as evasion, equivocation, or worse, an admission of fault. After Philip left, or maybe even before Philip entered that house, Mr. Johnson died in his sleep, of natural causes. <> In other words, it lets the jury know what to expect and allows them to understand the evidence when it is presented to them. Any witness called by any party may be cross-examined by any So long as you avoid lapsing into argumentative form you may develop your theory of the case.While you may not urge the trier of fact to reach certain conclusions, you may arrange your discussion of the facts so that the conclusions are inevitable.Many tools are available to accomplish this goal.In brief, a well-developed opening statement will take advantage of some or all of the following concepts: A fact-finder’s reflexive resort to common sense can also be used to lead them to a desired conclusion.Consider an opening statement that begins this way: “The defendant woke up late, he had an important meeting to go to, the meeting was to be held far from his home, he skipped breakfast and went directly to his car, the defendant drove to the meeting.”Without saying more, common sense suggests that the defendant was in a hurry when he was driving. Every good opening statement, no matter what the case, contains enough information to help you win the trial but not so much as to distract the fact-finder or risk exploitation by the other side.So, how do you know what to include?Although the content of openings will vary depending on the type of case, the following considerations are helpful in most trials. If you represent the prosecution in a criminal case, it is a good idea to introduce the victim of the crime after the traditional introduction.You might continue as follows: Introducing the victim at the outset of your case humanizes her so that the judge and jury will remember. #3 – Laying the foundation so they’ll understand the rest of the case. First, if you have had weeks or even months to prepare for your mock trial, you should memorize your opening statement.When you have had less time, we recommend that you write out your opening statement and then divide it into sections.At trial, you can use an outline that lists the sections or headings.By triggering your memory section by section, you can avoid reading your opening statement.Reading is your enemy during openings since it introduces you to the fact-finder as stilted, labored, or unprepared.It also prevents you from making eye contact, picking up on the fact-finder’s reactions, moving about the courtroom and quickly responding to objections and rulings by the court.If you represent the defense, reading your opening further prevents you from replying to challenges, weaknesses, and omissions in the plaintiff’s opening statement. This story is far more cohesive than the witness-based account.It brings all of the vehicles together at the fateful intersection without the necessity of the jurors having to keep a running account of their whereabouts and it connects the fire engine’s use of lights and siren directly to the cause of the accident. State of Georgia ... Everyone is trying their hand at writing an opening or closing statement. Common sense is used both to judge and predict outcomes.An opening statement cannot be successful if its story does not resonate with everyday experience. To reduce this confusion, the courts developed the concept of the opening statement.The opening statement gives the parties the opportunity to present an overview of the case at the beginning of the trial so as to better equip the fact-finder to make sense of the evidence as it is presented.This chance to give an overview of the expected testimony, however, is not an invitation to argue about it. �g�Dt0���>W�Pԝ�h�Le2Q���z� �B�\����+���V�q���J9�ua���. #2 – Building rapport and getting on their “good side”. Recalling the principle of primacy, which posits that what is heard first will be best remembered, you should begin your opening statement by getting right to the point: state your theme; explain the most important point of your theory; lay the groundwork for a crucial direct or cross examination; foreshadow your closing argument. In addition to limiting your opening to only the facts that you believe will be admissible at trial, there are other specific rules that set forth the manner in which you may present your opening statement.Once you understand these rules, you can begin to plan exactly what you will say.Before we address these rules, however, we will briefly summarize the techniques you should follow when delivering your opening statement. All events in the real world, after all, occur in chronological order.Moreover, we are all used to thinking of life in chronological terms.It is for this very reason, in fact, that opening statements have become part of the trial: to allow lawyers to take individual witness accounts and meld them into a single chronological narrative.Consider the following: Now that you have given the fact-finder your full story, you may want to briefly introduce the legal issues of the case.A statement of legal issues will put the significance of the facts into clear perspective.If you represent the plaintiff/prosecution, mention your burden briefly and state that you will prove that the defendant is liable/guilty: Your opening statement should almost always conclude with a request for, or explanation of, the verdict that you will seek at the end of the trial.This request should be made in general terms: “At the end of the case we will ask you to return a verdict that the defendant was nt guilty of negligence.”, West Michigan - Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. Contrast is the juxtaposition of contradictory facts, most often used in an opening statement to demonstrate the implausibility of some aspect of the opposing case.The defendant in the fire engine case might use contrast this way: Without resort to argument, the simple contrast between the medical bills and the camping trip casts doubt on the plaintiff’s allegation of permanent injury. Tampa Bay Campus | 9445 Camden Field Pkwy, Riverview, FL 33578 | (517) 371-5140, ext. The first one … It forecasts to the jury the evidence they will see and hear during the trial. 2244. [Note: This is an excerpt from a larger cross that occurred during a motion to suppress evidence. Likewise, although an excellent persuasive device when used elsewhere in a trial, repetition an lead an opening statement into the forbidden territory of argument.Even the most innocent of facts can become provocative when repeated as many as three times, each with greater emphasis. The persuasive ordering of facts can be accomplished either through incremental development or through contrast.Incremental development involves the successive ordering of a series of discrete facts, each building upon the last, until the desired conclusion becomes obvious.Although the facts will be related, they need not be presented in chronological order.The following example demonstrates how the plaintiff might use incremental development in our fire truck case: Note that the example begins when the defendant woke up, skips ahead to the information about the scheduled meeting, and then goes back to describe the rest of the defendant’s morning routine.Other facts, of course, could be added to show how seriously late the defendant was, and therefore how likely he was to drive carelessly or too fast.The point is that the individual events build upon each other to explain, without saying so, why the defendant would have been driving negligently.

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