Preparing the Foreign-Born Witness for Testimony

May 21, 2020

What is quite common in today’s court­rooms is foreign-born, English-speaking witnesses whose role is to convey believ­able, persuasive (and critical) testimony to a panel of jurors. There is a misconcep­tion among trial attorneys and corporate counsel that the “language barrier” is the primary obstacle to effective courtroom testimony with foreign-born witnesses. The heart of the matter is that foreign-born witnesses are often very poor com­municators in the courtroom, not because of the language barrier, but rather because of deep cultural traits that hinder their ability to get their messages across to ju­rors. With millions, if not billions, of dol­lars at stake in civil litigation matters, the unique verbal and nonverbal communi­cation challenges associated with foreign-born witnesses can leave trial attorneys and their clients economically vulnerable in the courtroom. Therefore, as the country continues to diversify culturally, and the number of foreign-born witnesses contin­ues to increase over time, trial teams will need to alter and supplement their witness preparation efforts. This program will help explain who foreign-born witnesses are and in what types of cases their testimony is commonly seen. It will address the linguistic and cultural bar­riers that are likely to present themselves and will also offer practical advice about the key preparation steps that should be taken before a foreign-born witness testi­fies. ­

Who Should Attend

• Defense Trial Attorneys

• Claims Specialists

• In-House Counsel

• Risk Managers

What You Will Learn

• How to identify and understand cultural barriers to communication

• How jurors perceive foreign-born witnesses

• Differences between cultural barriers and language barriers 

• How to improve credibility and believability of foreign-born witnesses

• Common witness preparation mishaps with foreign-born witnesses

Speaker

Bill Kanasky, Jr., Ph.D., is the Vice President of Litigation Psychology at Courtroom Sciences, Inc., a full-service, national litigation consulting firm. Dr. Kanasky is recognized as a national expert, author and speaker in the areas of advanced witness training and jury psychology and is the nation’s leading authority on recognizing, derailing, and defeating the plaintiff Reptile strategy.

Who should attend

• Civil trial attorneys

• In-house counsel

• Insurance claims specialists

What you will learn

Speakers:

Lorie Sicafuse, Ph.D., is trained as a social psychologist. Her grant funded doctoral research examined the effects of juror characteristics and deliberation dynamics on civil jury verdicts. Dr. Sicafuse has authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications appearing in academic journals and edited volumes. She applies her expertise in persuasion, information processing, attribution, and research methods to maximize the likelihood of favorable trial outcomes.

Melissa Loberg, Ph.D., a litigation consultant at Courtroom Sciences, Inc., has been conducting research, teaching and publishing articles in the area of psychology and the law for the past fifteen years. She has assisted clients on hundreds of cases across the nation in both high and low-risk matters by applying her expertise in psychology to jury selection, focus group/mock trial research and witness training.

WEBINARS AVAILABLE ON DEMAND

Defense attorneys across the nation are being bombarded with calls from their clients asking, “What the heck is going on with these crazy verdicts?” The emergence of the nuclear verdict is currently the hottest topic of discussion in civil litigation for both the plaintiff and defense bars. There are several factors to blame, including: 1) juror psychosocial factors, 2) growing litigation funding for plaintiff attorneys, 3) slow development of young defense attorneys, 4) political influences, 5) growth of Reptile tactics, 6) distrust of corporations, and 7) generational factors. This program will outline the influence of these factors on nuclear verdicts and provide practical solutions to avoid nuclear fallout for defendants.

Who Should Attend

• Trial attorneys who practice in the areas of medical malpractice, commercial liability, product liability, trucking and transportation, construction, and premises liability

• In-house counsel and insurance claims specialists

• Risk managers

• Corporate CFOs

What You Will Learn

• What is a nuclear verdict and why are they becoming more frequent

• What are the new tactics plaintiff attorneys are using in discovery and trial to obtain nuclear verdicts

• How the defense bar has (or hasn’t) responded to this disturbing trend

• How Reptilian tactics continue to fuel nuclear verdicts 

• How to thwart plaintiff attempts to obtain nuclear settlements and verdicts

Bill Kanasky, Jr., Ph.D., is the Vice President of Litigation Psychology at Courtroom Sciences, Inc., a full-service, national litigation consulting firm. Dr. Kanasky is recognized as a national expert, author and speaker in the areas of advanced witness training and jury psychology and is the nation’s leading authority on recognizing, derailing, and defeating the plaintiff Reptile strategy.

Andrew Chamberlin, Esq., is a trial attorney with a national practice. The scope of his practice includes product liability defense, catastrophic injury defense, and the prosecution and defense of significant commercial, construction, and intellectual property disputes.

George R. Speckart, Ph.D., is the National Director of Consulting at Courtroom Sciences, Inc. (CSI). Overall, Dr. Speckart has conducted research in over 1,500 cases, with over 200 in-court jury selections. He has worked in four different litigation consulting firms, compiling the most effective “tricks of the trade” from each one. Today, there is no other jury consultant in the country with over three decades of experience, and with a Ph.D. in psychological measurement with a research background and publications on the prediction of behavior. As a result, his research is considered to be the most accurate in the field.

Juror Confirmation Bias: Powerful, Perilous, Preventable 

Over the course of a civil trial, jurors are presented with several pieces of information. At the conclusion of the attorney presentations, counsel places their client’s case in the hands of jurors and have faith that the jurors will objectively view all of the evidence. However, this is far from what happens in the deliberation room. Instead, jurors often “cherry-pick” the information that supports their preconceived attitudes and beliefs. This webinar will explain why jurors fall victim to such behavior and how this decision-making process can be perilous to a client’s case.

Who Should Attend

• Civil trial attorneys

• In-house counsel

• Corporate clients

• Insurance claims specialists

What You Will Learn

• What confirmation bias is 

• How jurors and attorneys fall victim to confirmation bias

• The potentially damaging effects of confirmation bias

• How attorneys can help jurors, and themselves, overcome confirmation bias

Bill Kanasky, Jr., Ph.D., is the Vice President of Litigation Psychology at Courtroom Sciences, Inc., a full-service, national litigation consulting firm. Dr. Kanasky is recognized as a national expert, author and speaker in the areas of advanced witness training and jury psychology and is the nation’s leading authority on recognizing, derailing, and defeating the plaintiff Reptile strategy.

Steve M. Wood, Ph.D. is a Social Psychologist at Courtroom Sciences, Inc., a full-service, national litigation consulting firm. Dr. Wood uses his social psychological expertise to help clients understand the juror decision-making process and maximize the likelihood of favorable case outcomes.

Avoiding Hidden Catastrophes: The Healthcare Professional as a Witness

Despite significant differences in personalities and emotional expression between healthcare professionals, physician and nursing witnesses are repeatedly dealt with in a universal manner when preparing for depositions in medical malpractice cases, resulting in ineffective, and often damaging, testimony. Among physicians, two primary personalities can be identified while nursing staff can similarly be broken down into distinct personalities. Individual healthcare personalities must be identified and uniquely addressed early on, from both a cognitive and emotional perspective, to avoid destructive testimony that will unnecessarily increase both the value and exposure of the case.

      ·        In-house counsel and insurance claims specialists

      ·        Hospital administration, including litigation and risk management

      ·        Differences between physician and nurse witnesses

      ·        Cognitive and emotional approaches to preparing physician vs. nurse witnesses based on individual needs

      ·        Reptile tactics use by plaintiffs with medical professional witnesses

Speakers

Alyssa Parker, Ph.D., is a litigation consultant at Courtroom Sciences, Inc. (CSI). She uses CSI’s proven scientific methodology, as well as her own clinical psychology expertise, in every stage of the litigation lifecycle. Dr. Parker’s approach to witness training utilizes strategic techniques to overturn the use of neuropsychological manipulation that leaves witnesses vulnerable to cognitive, emotional and behavior errors during deposition and trial testimony.

Joel Peschke is a partner with the Cincinnati law firm Calderhead, Lockemeyer & Peschke. Named an Ohio Super Lawyer from 2014–2020, he focuses his practice on the representation of physicians, health care providers, and medical centers throughout Ohio and Kentucky.