Tip #7: Know thy Enemy
By: Leonard & Dante Martinez
Knowing your enemy is vital to any part of a trial, and before a good legal professional walks into the courtroom, they try to get a decent-sense of control over their arguments. Whether the situation pertains to a Plaintiff or a Defendant, any part of a trial has opposite sides describing their cases, and in a civil trial it is forbidden to have a trial by surprise… At least to a point. Think of it as a game of poker, where you want to show the other side just enough to lead them on, but not your whole hand. I am both pleased and disheartened when the attorney on the opposite side describes their case to me in detail during the pre-trial phase. When this happens, I try to give them as little as possible in return without violating any discovery rules. Of course, there’s a fine line, and sometimes you will lean towards fully disclosing your arguments when you are close to a settlement, especially when full disclosures will help reach that settlement. This is even more true in criminal cases. I have worked on cases against criminal defense attorneys that also give too much away in the pretrial phase in the hope of getting a better plea deal; sometimes they only get the same plea offer in return, and have ruined their chances of surprises at the actual trial. So, if you want to best your opponent it is wise to follow in the legendary words of Sun Tzu, from The Art of War:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”