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Anatomy of a trial: Theory in practice, Part 1
In 2004, a University of Wisconsin law professor named Marc Galanter published a revealing report titled "The Vanishing Trial." It documented what so many of litigators have witnessed year after year, decade after decade: a drastic decline in cases going to trial. To give you a sense of how extreme this trend has become, consider these statistics from Galanter's paper: In 1962, 11.5 percent of all civil dispositions filed in U.S. district courts went to trial. By 2002, that figure had dropped to 1.8 percent. The decline has been steady and steep, and as a result, a whole generation of litigators is moving up in the profession with little or no practical experience trying cases in a courtroom. The causes of this phenomenon are for another book. This volume, however, has been designed for young trial lawyers eager to gain an appreciation of how to handle real problems encountered during jury trials. Theories about the various aspects of trial advocacy abound and can be read about in numerous books. But as any experienced litigator knows, theory is often complicated and sometimes compromised by the realities of an actual trial. For illustrative purposes, then, this book considers the key phases of jury trials (voir dire, opening statements, direct and cross- examination, and closing arguments) in the light of a particular case: United States of America vs. David Rosen. I choose this case in part because of the provocative subjects it dealt with - campaign finance, national politics, Hollywood fund raising, among others - but primarily because the trial was rigorous and challenging.
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