They are once again on their way. They are walking through the forest. Shrek belches. DONKEY Shrek! SHREK What? It's a compliment. Better out than in, I always say. (laughs) DONKEY Well, it's no way to behave in front of a princess. Fiona belchesThence, Rule 3 of the Simple Rules for Better Jury Selection: the Shrek Rule of Jury Selection: Better out than in. It's related to

Jury consultant Dennis Elias (@JuryVox) twitted:At opening statement you have no standing with the jury. Don't tell them what the evidence will show; story them the evidence.Break that down into a rule (tell the jury the story of the evidence) and a reason (because you have no standing with the jury).The reason is not necessarily true. If you're lucky, in any particular case it'll be dead wrong;

You may not have noticed this, but people don't like lawyers very much. Or rather, they don't like people acting like lawyers very much. Once they get to know them, they like the human beings behind the label just fine, but it's not the jurors' job to go behind the label, and if you define yourself as "Big Important Attorney Man" they're not going to. I bet

Harris County Assistant District Attorney Roger Bridgwater has said of the DWI DIVERT ("Direct Intervention using Voluntary Education Restitution and Treatment", I am reliably informed, and not "maybe this will make the voters love us", as I suggested before) program:What happens if someone tests positive for alcohol while on diversion? The program is zero tolerance. In this 1980 Rand study, 54% of alcoholics were problem drinkers four

Rule 1 of my Simple Rules for Better Jury Selection is the Nike Rule: Just do it.It’s not a very sexy rule, so I won’t lead off with it when I’m speaking in Waco in September (I’ll probably put it at the end for the few faithful who stick around); I’ll give you Rule 2 (The First Date Rule) soon, so don’t feel too ripped off.Just do

Prosecutors, do you want to learn about the new DIVERT program that your office adopted without consulting with you? Defense lawyers, do you want to learn about the ethics of ex parte agreements with judges about minimum sentences in DWI cases? Incumbent judges,* do you want to find out who is going to support your reelection campaigns when the criminal defense bar refuses because of your backroom

It's against my nature to continue letting Houston DWI lawyer Paul Kennedy pick the low-lying fruit of the Harris County DA's new DIVERT (the acronym, as I understand it, stands for "maybe this will make the voters love us") DWI diversion program.This program is prosecutor Roger Bridgwater's baby. I believe Roger's heart is in the right place. He is trying to help people, but despite the best

If I read The Volokh Conspiracy, I would've seen and (again) blogged about this back in February: U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III in Burlington handed down an opinion sort-of-reversing Magistrate Judge Jerome J. Niedermeier's order quashing a grand jury subpoena for:all documents, whether in electronic or paper form, reflecting any passwords used or associated with the Alienware Notebook Computer . . . . seized from

An evolving list: Rule Zero The Nike Rule. The First Blind Date Rule. The Shrek Rule. The 90/10 Rule. MacCarthy's Bar Rule. Improv Rule I. Improv Rule II. The Shrink Rule. The Beer Pong Rule. The Marathon Rule. The Playing Doctor Rule. The Field Trip Rule. The Undertow Rule. The Atticus Finch Rule. The Bat Rule. The Herd Rule. More detail in posts to come. [If you

I've made a small change to improve accessibility for the vision-impaired. Notice the pulldown menu labeled "Theme Switcher". The default theme is Wasteland; you can pick one of the other themes, some of which (WhitePress [though there's a comment display bug at the moment], possibly WordPress Classic) are more accessible.Enjoy.