Trial Tips: (1) Get Your Client to Talk During Direct. (2) Use Depo Clips to Effectively Impeach Witnesses.
Sep 01, 2026Watch the video above to get two great trial tips from Pam Traut, 30-year plaintiff's trial lawyer at Traut Injury Law and ABOTA leader (Orange County chapter, Cal-ABOTA board, incoming VP of the National Foundation of ABOTA).
On direct exam: retrain your client. Before their deposition you told them "yes or no, don't elaborate." But in trial, on damages, you need the opposite. Pam's line to clients: "This is where I want you to just unleash. “One client walked the jury through every painful step of washing his own car — that's what makes suffering real to people who've never been seriously injured.”
On cross: if you're going to impeach with a deposition video, think like a video editor while you're taking the depo. Get a clean question, a clean answer — no wandering. Pam saw it firsthand in her first trial in 1998: a property owner said on video in her deposition "No, absolutely not" when asked if security was her responsibility. Later, in trial she said "Yes, of course" on the witness stand. Opposing counsel had the clip cued and ready to go. Devastating.
The full episode has a lot more — voir dire, damages arguments, expert cross, closing strategy, etc.
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