8 Basics 2 of 8 - Facts

Welcome to We Win. Things Change.

“. . . He wakes. Sharply. His left arm lunges to her side of the bed – where she is supposed to be – where she’s been. Nearly every morning. For 28 years. She isn’t there though. Has he been dreaming? She really is gone. He looks over at the sun shining on the white pillow. She isn’t there. He knows he’ll never see her again. He can feel her though. He tries to talk to her. Wherever she is now. It does not matter. He must tell her. Just once more. How much he loves her. How unsure he is whether he can go on. Without her. He begins to weep. Quietly at first. His eyes tightly closed. His gut tightens. Curled up like that he cries. And cries. His urge to move overtaking him, he leaps from his bed screaming, “God! Help Me! Please! Please! Please! Help Me! Down the hall and out the door he runs until his bare feet touch the grass. Suddenly he stops. The sun rising. He falls to his knees. His chin drops to his chest. He weeps. Uncontrollably at first. And weeps . . .”

Facts are much more than “the placenta tore away from the uterine wall,” or “this ambulance company overcharged the government by over $8,000,000,” or “the light was red.” Systemic and systems-based issues – why this happened – and the pain that what happened here caused - are oft-times more subtle.

To perfect your craft and win your case, you must embrace that subtlety, those grey areas of your facts. Invariably, that’s much of what your case is – that grey area. Embrace that grey area. Repeatedly ask, what’s really going on here and why? When you do, however big you’re thinking, think bigger.

Many people are uncomfortable in that grey area. Your mind loves defined. The more well-defined, the better. Black and white even. To try your case though, you must lift the subtle facts from your story too, develop congruent crosses and directs, and get those subtle facts into evidence. Your crosses and directs illicit those subtle facts from trial testimony that prove your story, your case.

Embrace the subtlety, try your hand at just the facts in everything you do – trial preparation – trial, opening, cross examining witnesses, closing, etc. Do that, you’ll win. You’ll change things too.

Next up in 8 Basics, “Words.”

Until next time,
James Hugh Potts II
We Win. Things Change.