The vast majority of cases today are resolved long before they make it to a jury trial. Parties are often contractually obligated to work out their differences through arbitration or mediation.
How does the fact that you will be arguing the case in front of a judge/arbitrator/mediator, rather than a jury, change your approach?
• Is it less necessary to be clear and concise?
• Is it less necessary to be on-target and unambiguous?
• Is it less necessary to have strong themes and tell a good story?
• Is there less at stake?
The answer to all of these questions is, of course: No. A carefully-crafted presentation is important no matter who will be hearing the matter. And just as with jury trials, we can expertly design a mock bench trial study that can help you to refine your themes, highlight your strengths and defuse your weaknesses.
We start by recruiting a panel of retired judges with similar backgrounds to the judge in your case. The mock judges review briefs, listen to case presentations and, perhaps even, witnesses. Our lead consultant will then pose questions to the panel of judges, and, ultimately, moderate an interactive panel discussion between the judges and your trial team. It has been our experience that insights gained in exercises like this are every bit as valuable as those gained in a traditional jury mock trial.
Through our mock arbitration and bench studies, you can:
• Learn what influences a judge in your case
• Test your strategies, themes and legal arguments before a neutral third party
• Obtain feedback on your witnesses, and provide them with a “dress rehearsal”
• Gauge your audience’s understanding of the subject matter.
• Brainstorm with a panel of judges on the merits of your case, and how to improve upon it.
• This exercise can even be combined with a traditional mock jury trial to give you DUAL feedback on both the legal and factual issues in your case.
This innovative service is a great way to prepare for:
• Arbitrations
• Bench trials
• Class certification hearings
• Markman Hearings
• FINRA Arbitrations
• Appellate Hearings