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Trial Advocacy

21 September
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Factors Affecting Trial Strategy: The Client

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Trial Advocacy
Factors Affecting Trial Strategy: The Client

A lawyer’s plan of attack for a case that goes to trial utilizes certain trial tactics to implement an overall trial strategy. Because every case is different, the trial strategy of each case will be different as well. Just the same, specific universal principles may be applied in every case to formulate the best trial strategy for the case at hand. One factor that affects trial strategy in every case is the client. In personal injury cases, plaintiff’s attorneys are free to choose their clients while defense attorneys, who are retained by insurance companies, do not possess this same luxury. A...

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16 September
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About Cross-Examining Eyewitnesses

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Law Practice, Trial Advocacy
About Cross-Examining Eyewitnesses

In any trial involving some event whether an interaction, accident, or transaction, the evidence presented in the form of testimony by eyewitnesses is typically immensely persuasive. There are some simple principles for lawyers to remember when formulating a plan to cross-examine a witness. Jurors place great weight on eyewitness testimony, especially if the witness has no apparent bias and is simply a neutral, disconnected party who happened to allegedly observe the event under scrutiny. The evidence offered through eyewitness testimony is promising to a juror, assuming that the witness is credible and reliable. If a juror believes that an eyewitness has...

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14 September
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Florida Court Conducts Jury Selection Over Zoom

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Law Practice, Trial Advocacy, Uncategorized
Florida Court Conducts Jury Selection Over Zoom

With the pandemic continuing to rage in the late summer of 2020, courts continue to adapt all over the United States. Florida’s courts have been operating under emergency guidelines since a March 13, 2020, order suspended jury trials and implemented other actions to restrict potential virus spreading activities in Florida state courts. Some jury trials have resumed in parts of Florida using remote teleconferencing technology for all or part of the proceedings. As a way to assist in planning how to safely resume jury trials during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Miami-Dade County, Florida, recently conducted a jury trial...

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17 August
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Attorneys, Advocates, And The CDTA Vision

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Soft Skills, Trial Advocacy
Attorneys, Advocates, And The CDTA Vision

From the time the California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) accepted its first class of students in 2012, it provided them with a unique, innovative, genuinely modern focus on legal education. While this emphasis implements the same comprehensive learning curriculum as traditional law schools, it contemplates and remedies the common shortcomings of law school graduates. At CDTA, we educate students to be lawyers, but we also train and develop them to be exceptional trial advocates. The Attorney Upon leaving law school with a JD, ideally, a graduate should understand the substantive law and be in the position to start her own practice or assume the role...

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10 August
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Knowing The Minority’s View

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Law Practice, Training, Trial Advocacy
Knowing The Minority’s View

A minority or dissenting opinion is an opinion by one or more judges in a legal case who disagree, or dissent, with the decision reached by the majority. Any law student knows that a dissenting opinion creates no binding precedent as any applicable part of case law. Yet, it is not uncommon for judges to cite them as persuasive authority for an argument the holding of a court should be overturned or limited. John Patrick Dolan founded the California Desert Trial Academy College of Law (CDTA) based on the philosophy of not only teaching students the substantive law, but on training, educating,...

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08 July
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Some Thoughts About Trial Strategy

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Soft Skills, Trial Advocacy
Some Thoughts About Trial Strategy

Trial strategy is an attorney’s comprehensive plan that when executed will provide the best chance of success in a litigated matter. Attorneys may use certain tactics throughout a trial as tools for specific purposes designed to implement this strategy. Since every legal matter differs when considering the underlying facts of each matter, applicable law, the measure of damages, defenses, etc., so must every trial strategy differ. Approaches to trial strategy may be far-ranging. There are basic, straightforward ideas as well as concepts that delve into the psychological realm and utilize other advanced approaches. The basic concepts of trial strategy involve the simple...

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07 May
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Ten Tips For Voir Dire

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Law Practice, Training, Trial Advocacy
Ten Tips For Voir Dire

Generally. voir dire involves the preliminary examination of a juror by counsel. Frankly, voir dire is the mechanism through which attorneys select, or perhaps more appropriately reject, certain jurors to sit and hear a case. It is also a phrase used for a variety of procedures related to jury trials. Here are ten tips for effective voir dire. Adopt the proper orientation. Questioning during voir dire should be “conversational” rather than like an interview. Tell jurors why they are there. Explain the process to jurors requesting, if not cordially demanding, their honesty and candor, while helping them acknowledge their biases. Get jurors...

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20 April
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Tools Of Trial Advocacy – Direct Examination

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Law Practice, Training, Trial Advocacy
Tools Of Trial Advocacy – Direct Examination

The ability to effectively question witnesses and elicit information is a necessary and crucial skill for an attorney advocate to develop and master. Any attorney who plans on a legal career that involves litigation must address this valuable skill and tool of trial advocacy. According to one judge, direct examination of a witness is one of the rare times that an attorney has a substantial measure of control over how the story of a witness, including client, gets told to the jury in the most compelling manner, logically presented and uninterrupted. The direct examination of witnesses is the most important component...

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14 April
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Tools Of Trial Advocacy – Preparing For Voir Dire

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Training, Trial Advocacy
Tools Of Trial Advocacy – Preparing For Voir Dire

There are many tools of trial advocacy that are important for attorney-advocates to perfect in law school and their practice. One tool that is often overlooked is the voir dire process – choosing a jury. The process of selecting those individuals responsible for fact-finding and deciding a legal matter is not one to be taken lightly. Voir dire may help attorneys identify jurors who can be fair and impartial, rather than unfair and biased. Attorneys are seeking those members of the jury pool who need to be removed and the questions of attorneys should be structured to expose them. As a preliminary...

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13 April
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CDTA’s Courtroom Atmosphere

Posted by cdtalaw
in CDTA, Curriculum, Law Practice, Training, Trial Advocacy
CDTA’s Courtroom Atmosphere

The California Desert Trial Academy (CDTA) is a modern, 21st Century law school. We provide legal instruction with an emphasis on transforming law students into not just lawyers, but effective attorney-advocates. One way that the CDTA facilitates this unique focus on the training of attorney-advocates is how each class provides a courtroom, rather than a classroom, atmosphere because it is in a real courtroom setting. Every class in each subject is presented by one of CDTA’s experienced professors in CDTA’s modern courtroom facilities. In fact, class sessions at CDTA typically include more than one legal scholar. These professionals interact with students...

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CONTACT INFORMATION

California Desert Trial Academy College of Law
45-290 Fargo Street
Indio, CA 92201
(760) 342-0900

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Statement of Nondiscrimination

Consistent with sound educational policy, CDTA College of Law does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, ancestry, religious creed, national origin, disability, medical condition, age, marital status, political affiliation, gender identity, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

California State Bar Standard and Required Disclosure

The method of instruction at this law school for the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree program is principally in physical classroom facilities.

Students enrolled in the J.D. degree program at this law school who successfully complete the first year of law study must pass the First-Year Law Students Examination required by Business and Professions Code 6060(h) and Rule VIII of the Rules Regulating Admission to Practice Law in California as part of the requirements to qualify to take the California Bar Examination.

A student who passes the First-Year Law Students Examination within three (3) administrations of the examination after first becoming eligible to take it will receive credit for all legal studies completed to the time the examination is passed. A student who does not pass the examination within three (3) administrations of the examination after first becoming eligible to take it must be promptly disqualified from the law school’s J.D. degree program. If the dismissed student subsequently passes the examination, the student is eligible for re-enrollment in this law school’s J.D. degree program, but will receive credit for only one year of legal study.

Study at, or graduation from, this law school may not qualify a student to take the bar examination or to satisfy the requirements for admission to practice in jurisdictions other than California. A student intending to seek admission to practice law in a jurisdiction other than California should contact the admitting authority in that jurisdiction for information regarding the legal education requirements in that jurisdiction for admission to the practice of law.

Copyright CDTA California Desert Trial Academy College of Law. All rights reserved. The Desert’s first and only Law School. Proudly serving all of Southern California; accepting applications from Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties.

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