Robert Musante's CLE Seminars

The BEST deposition cross-examination seminars ... EVER!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

8:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m.

Embassy Suites Hotel

1345 Treat Boulevard, Walnut Creek

(1 block from Pleasant Hill BART)

Great Adverse Depositions: Principles & Principal Techniques

6.5 hours CLE credit

High-quality adverse depositions require the conscious and conscientious application of the integrated set of logical cross-examination rules. This seminar wastes no time on entry-level wisdom, code chatter, idiosyncratic war stories, or tired maxims. Instead, using video clips from high-profile cases, it brilliantly teaches how to take adverse depositions as never before … the one, right, logical way: as an intellectually rigorous discipline.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

8:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m.

Embassy Suites Hotel

1345 Treat Boulevard, Walnut Creek

(1 block from Pleasant Hill BART)

Attacking the Expert's Opinion

at Deposition (and Trial)

6.5 hours CLE credit

There is one right, logical method with which to effectively attack the adverse expert's opinion at deposition … no matter the area of law, no matter the field of expertise. As never before, this seminar elucidates that logical method and teaches the archetypal set of integrated questions that are at the heart of every great deposition (and every great trial cross-examination) of the witness who – awkward truth be told – has been paid to screw your case theory.

April 24, 2012

Great Adverse Depositions:

Principles & Principal Techniques

Register by March 26: $255 (a 15% discount)

Register after March 26: $300

April 26, 2012

Attacking The Expert's Opinion

at Deposition (and Trial)

Register by March 26: $255 (a 15% discount)

Register after March 26: $300

April 24 & 26, 2012

Both Seminars

Register by March 26: $450 (a 25% discount)

Register after March 26: $600

AGENDA re

Great Adverse Depositions: Principles & Principal Techniques

8:30 - 10:00 a.m.

• Deposition cross-examination: an intellectually rigorous discipline
• "Battleships" ... the checklist of recurring deposition questions
• 4 nearly-everybody-agrees depo- sition cross-examination rules
• The "Grand Unified Theory" of civil litigation
• Rationale re saving attacks for surprise at trial
• The can't-be-beat argument vs. the stupidest depo. orthodoxy
• "Whack" defined & demonstrated
• 7 advantages: deposition cross-examiner vs. trial cross-examiner
• Introduction of "The Magnificent Seven"
• When to ask leading questions in a deposition

10:00 - 10:10 a.m. Break

10:10 - 11:20 a.m.

• Exceptions to the leading question rule
• When the truth is not nearly enough
• Bluffing deponent into a damaging admission
• Deponent's escapes from answers to leading questions
• Using rhetoric to intensify arguments
• Reasoning questions

11:20 - 11:30 a.m. Break

11:30 - 12:30 p.m.

• Reasoning questions (cont.)
• Firewalling introduced
• Interrogatory-like questions
• "Nail-down" terms
• Enumeration
• Looping
• Identifying a mediocre adverse deposition in only 60 seconds

12:30 - 1:15 p.m. Lunch (on your own)

1:15 - 2:35 p.m.

• Making the implied or hidden express using lexicography

2:35 - 2:45 p.m. Break

2:45 - 4:15 p.m.

• Making the implied or hidden express using logic
• The transfer of information rule & the most common dumb deposition question
• Deposition "crap" defined
• Attacking narrow questions & question-dodging with high school English skills
• Attacking 2 answers in 1 question
• Attacking the "needle & the haystack" answer
• More re "wisdom" of saving attacks for surprise at trial
• Conducting "interviews" vs. taking great adverse depositions
• Coda

4:15 - 5:00 p.m. (optional)

• All remaining questions about the seminar's teaching points will be answered (or, at least, discussed) ... alas, no official CLE credit will be offered for this segment. Those who cannot stay are invited to send their questions to musante@killerdepo.com.

AGENDA re

Attacking the Expert's Opinion

at Deposition and (Trial)

8:30 - 10:00 a.m.

• "Mt. Olympus" expert introduced
• Deposition cross-examination logic applied to experts
• When attacks vs. expert should be played at deposition
• The structure of every opinion:

O = R + 2F
• End point opinions & subordinate opinions
• Bedrock finding & bedrock assumptions
• Seminar's case facts explained
• Cross-examiner's critical listening skills

10:00 - 10:10 a.m. Break
 
10:10 - 11:20 a.m.

• The schematic every-case-forever chart introduced
• Five categories of expert opinions
• Two must-be-asked questions
• Ten types of expert rules
• X and Y factors defined

11:20 - 11:30 a.m. Break
 
11:30 - 12:30 p.m.

• Scientific rules & Sir Francis Bacon
• Experiential rules (the "trust-me" expert)
• The scope of expert's expertise
• Non-expert rules
• Expert's weighing process
• Cross-examiner's critical listening skills (again)

12:30 - 1:15 p.m. Lunch (on your own)
 
1:15 - 2:35 p.m.

• Two incredibly important - and easy to master - techniques
• Attacks vs. expert's claims re X factors
• The "certainty scale" and two archetypal arguments
• Six sources of assumptions
• Seven potential flaws re the expert's assumption

2:35 - 2:45 p.m. Break
 
2:45 - 4:15 p.m.

• Attacking expert's findings derived through expert means
• Attacking expert's findings derived through non-expert means
• Expert's three - and only three - attacks vs. Y factors:
- Relevance
- Not established
- Weight
• Attacking expert's double standard re case/career
• The perfection line of questioning
• Coda: Don't squander the expert's deposition

4:15 - 5:00 p.m. (optional)

• All remaining questions about the seminar's teaching points will be answered (or, at least, discussed) ... alas, no official CLE credit will be offered for this segment. Those who cannot stay are invited to send their questions to musante@killerdepo.com.