NITA Publications

100 Vignettes for Improving Trial Evidence Skills

This book contains vignettes of trial testimony all designed to raise evidentiary issues in the context in which they occur. Whether this resource is used in an evidence or trial advocacy classroom, professional learning environment, or for your own personal study, the vignettes are extraordinary examples of how specific evidentiary issues arise at trial. Additionally, this resource provides a context for a better understanding of the rules of evidence as they are applied - a skill set every successful attorney acquires.

Law professors may request the teaching notes for this publication by emailing ReviewCopy@lexisnexis.com.

• >> TABLE OF CONTENTS
  CONTENTS BY TOPIC WITH CORRESPONDING VIGNETTE NUMBERS
  
  Introduction
  Review Vignettes
  
  -A
  Activity, Records of Regularly Conducted -- Vignette Numbers 86--87
  Admissions -- Vignette Numbers 5, 72--77
  Attorney-Client Privilege -- Vignette Number 51
  Authentication -- Vignette Numbers 53-56
  -B
  Bias and Prior Bad Acts -- Vignette Number 19
  Business Records -- Vignette Number 85
  -C
  Character -- Vignette Numbers 31--44
  Competence to Testify -- Vignette Number 6
  Completeness, Rule of -- Vignette Number 5
  Compromise, Offers to -- Vignette Numbers 46--47
  Consistent Statements -- Vignette Number 70
  -D
  Documents Rule, Original -- Vignette Numbers 57--60
  -E
  Exceptions -- Vignette Number 83
  Exceptions, Residual -- Vignette Number 98
  Excited Utterances -- Vignette Numbers 79--80
  Expert Opinions -- Vignette Numbers 11--15
  -F-G
  Forfeiture by Wrongdoing -- Vignette Number 95
  Forms of Questions -- Vignette Numbers 2--4
  Former Testimony -- Vignette Numbers 92--93, 96
  -H
  Habit and Rule -- Vignette Number 45
  Hearsay -- Vignette Numbers 61--69:
  Admissions -- Vignette Numbers 72--77, Business Records -- Vignette Number 85, Consistent Statements -- Vignette Number 70, Exceptions -- Vignette Number 83, Excited Utterances -- Vignette Numbers 80--81, Forfeiture by Wrongdoing -- Vignette Number 95, Former Testimony -- Vignette Numbers 92--93, 96, Hearsay within Hearsay -- Vignette Numbers 88, 91, Impeaching the Hearsay Declarant -- Vignette Numbers 93, 96--97, Impeachment -- Vignette Numbers 17--26 (and Rehabilitation) -- Vignette Number 24, Impending Death -- Vignette Numbers 88, 90, Official Records -- Vignette Numbers 88--9, Party Admissions -- Vignette Number 73, Present Sense Impressions -- Vignette Numbers 78--79, Recorded Recollections -- Vignette Number 84, Records, Official -- Vignette Numbers 88--90, Records of Regularly Conducted Activity -- Vignette Numbers 86--87, Residual Exceptions 95--98, State of Mind and for Diagnosis -- Vignette Numbers 82, 91, Statements of Identification -- Vignette Number 71, Statements Against Interest -- Vignette Number 93, Statements Made Under Belief of Impending Death -- Vignette Numbers 88, 90
  -I
  Impeaching the Hearsay Declarant -- Vignette Numbers 93, 96--97
  Impeachment -- Vignette Numbers 17--26 and Bias and Prior Bad Acts -- Vignette Number 19 and Relevance -- Vignette Number 27
  Insurance, Liability -- Vignette Number 48
  -J
  Judicial Notice -- Vignette Number 1 and former testimony -- Vignette Numbers 92, 96
  -K-L
  Lay Opinion Testimony -- Vignette Numbers 7--10
  Liability Insurance -- Vignette Numbers 47--48
  Limited Admissibility -- Vignette Number 5
  -M-N-O
  Offers to Compromise -- Vignette Numbers 46, 69
  Original Documents Rule -- Vignette Numbers 56--59
  -P-Q
  Pleas and Plea Discussions -- Vignette Number 50
  Present Sense Impression -- Vignette Numbers 78--79
  Preserving Error -- Vignette Numbers 2--4
  Prior Bad Acts (Bias and) -- Vignette Number 19
  Privilege, Attorney-Client -- Vignette Number 51
  -R
  Recollections, Recorded -- Vignette Number 84
  Records, Official -- Vignette Numbers 88--90
  Records of Regularly Conducted Activity -- Vignette Numbers 95--98
  Relevance -- Vignette Numbers 27--30
  Rehabilitation -- Vignette Number 24
  Remedial Measures, Subsequent -- Vignette Number 52
  Rule of Completeness -- Vignette Number 5
  -S
  State of Mind for Diagnosis -- Vignette Number 82
  Statements:
  Against Interest -- Vignette Number 93, Consistent -- Vignette Number 70, of Identification -- Vignette Number 71, Made Under Belief of Impending Death -- Vignette Numbers 88--90, of Present Bodily Condition -- Vignette Number 91, for the Purpose of Medical Diagnosis -- Vignette Numbers 82, 91
  Subsequent Remedial Measures -- Vignette Number 52
  
  October 12, 2010

• >> AUTHORS
  
  
  • Anthony J. Bocchino
    
    
    • Professor Anthony Bocchino is an honors graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law after which he was a Bradway Fellow at the Duke University School of Law. He served as a full time faculty member at both the University of Connecticut School of Law and the Duke University Law School before joining the Temple University Beasley School of Law faculty in 1979. At the Beasley School of Law for the period 1979 -1989 he was Director of Temple's Trial Advocacy and Clinical Programs. He has designed the program, written materials and taught in the law school's Integrated Trial Advocacy Program which has been twice awarded the Gumpert Award for Excellence in Teaching Trial Advocacy from the American College of Trial Lawyers, in addition to receiving the Gambrell Award for Teaching Professionalism from the American Bar Association. In 1997 he was named by Temple University as the Jack E. Feinberg Professor of Litigation.
      
      Professor Bocchino has been honored with teaching awards from Duke University School of Law where he received the Mordecai Society Award and the Beasley School of Law where he was the first recipient of the George P. Williams II Memorial Award. In addition, he has received the Oliphant Award from the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and the Richard S. Jacobson Award from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America for excellence in teaching the art and science of trial advocacy.
      
      In addition to his law school duties Professor Bocchino has served as a faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) since 1974, served as NITA's Director for five years and served as the organization's Editor in Chief. Bocchino has written materials and designed programs for trial, deposition, fact investigation, motion practice and appellate advocacy programs for more than 30 law firms and numerous public agencies. He has also conducted needs analyses and designed litigation skill curricula for numerous law firms. His CLE materials and program designs are among the most frequently utilized by those organizations. In addition, he has and will customize materials to the specific needs of individual clients.
      
      Professor Bocchino is the author of over 60 books and articles, predominantly in the fields of Evidence, Trial Advocacy, Civil Litigation and Professional Responsibility. His trial advocacy and/or deposition practice materials are used in a majority of the law schools in America, as well as in CLE litigation skills training in the public and private sectors.
      
      Professor Bocchino has been elected as a member of the American Law Institute, and named a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, Litigation Counsel of America and the International Society of Barristers.

  
  

  • JoAnne A. Epps
    
    
    • JoAnne A. Epps taught at the Temple University Beasley School of Law for twenty-three years before becoming dean of the law school in 2008. For nineteen of those early years, Epps served as associate dean for Academic Affairs. Before joining the Temple faculty in 1985, she was a deputy city attorney for the City of Los Angeles and an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern district of Pennsylvania. She is also a long-time member of the faculty of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) and the American Law Institute/American Bar Association (ALI-ABA). She has travelled internationally, teaching lawyers around the world about international criminal law, advocacy skills and other topics, particularly to lawyers who were working with victims of the Darfur crisis and the civil hostilities of Rwanda. She also worked with lawyers in Japan in anticipation of the 2009 re-institution of jury trials in criminal cases in that country. She is a frequent speaker on evidence, advocacy and legal education. Epps is the author or co-author of a number of academic publications, including The Winning Argument and The Twelve Secrets of Persuasive Argument, both written with Paul Mark Sandler and Ronald J. Waicukauski.

  
  

  • David A. Sonenshein
    
    
    • David A. Sonenshein is the I. Herman Stern Professor of Law at Temple University. He has also been a faculty member at George Washington University National Law Center, DePaul University College of Law, and Boston University School of Law, teaching civil procedure, criminal procedure, evidence, professional responsibility, trial advocacy, and complex civil litigation. He has received the Outstanding Professor Award at both DePaul and Temple Law Schools a total of six times. He is a nationally recognized lecturer on the law of evidence in the courtroom. As a consultant to the Federal Judicial Center, he leads seminars for all new Federal District Court Judges on the law of evidence, as well as offering seminars for experienced U.S. District Court Judges. He has served as an instructor on evidence and trial advocacy for NITA, AILTO (of which he is the Director), ALI-ABA, and the National Practice Institute. Professor Sonenshein earned the Francis E. Rawle Award from the American Law Institute and American Bar Association for his outstanding contributions to the field of post-admission legal education. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his J.D. from New York University School of Law.