Pozner on Cross: Advanced Techniques Using the Chapter Method©

Course Instructor
Larry Pozner — Reilly Pozner LLP, Denver, CO

About the Course Instructor
Larry Pozner is a nationally recognized trial lawyer, lecturer, and author. His book Cross Examination: Science and Techniques (Lexis, co-authored with Roger Dodd) is now in its 3rd edition and continues to be America's bestselling book on cross. Reviewers have described the book in words such as "long," and "in English."

Larry's lectures are built around the newest tools for understanding how to motivate jurors to award us the verdict we seek, the advanced techniques of cross that can immediately result in an advantage in trial, and how we can all become quicker at crafting the cross examinations that win cases.

Larry began his career in the Colorado Public Defender system. He later formed a criminal defense firm, and a subsequent firm handling both plaintiff and defense sides of document-intensive civil matters for business large and small, but if we are being blunt, mostly large. For many years Larry defended the Denver Broncos franchise in trials including the lawsuit challenging Pat Bowlen's purchase of the team. Larry won, which is why he could remain in Colorado.

Larry is a past-president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America for Bet-the-Company litigation, and in Criminal Defense, both White Collar and Non-White Collar crimes.

He has lectured in 48 states throughout Canada, and strangely, Brazil. As a teacher at the University of Denver College of Law he was voted Best Professor. But that may have been due to his "nobody flunks" policy.

The Science Behind Chapter Method Cross-examinations

• behavioral economics: how people take shortcuts to decisions
• cognitive neuroscience: how the brain processes information and can tire
• cognitive psychology: how the brain prefers to acquire information

Cross-examination as Storytelling

• how leading questions enable the cross-examiner to become the storyteller
• the science of communicating through storytelling
• chunking information to allow immediate understanding

BREAK

The Chapter Method of Cross-examination

• the trimtab principle; small changes in preparation creates big advantages
• drafting Chapters; the efficient path to winning cross-examinations
• the mental economics of Chapter Method preparation and presentation

Chapter Bundles

• techniques for telling big stories through linked smaller stories
• using opponent's witnesses to tell our stories
• examples of Chapter bundles

LUNCH

Sequences of Cross-examination

• using the order of Chapters to shape jurors' perceptions
• how to begin and end a cross
• questioning techniques that minimize risk

Constructive Cross examination

• how winning cross is asymmetrical to direct
• +/- scoring of our potential witnesses
• asking safe questions when we do not have the fact in discovery

Page Preparation of Cross-examination Chapters

• the architecture of a page of cross
• page format examples
• preparing for instant impeachments

Questioning Techniques that Control the Witness

• the only three rules of cross-examination
• delivering questions that deprive the witness of time to deceive
• using the science of anxiety to block evasive answers