Self-study
P1
"Stealing thunder" is a courtroom strategy that consists in a lawyer's revealing negative information about a client before that information is revealed or elicited by an opposing lawyer. █████ █████ ██ ██ █████ ██ █████████ █ ████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██████████ █████ ██ ████ █████████
Intro topic ·
Stealing thunder
Revealing negative information about one's own client in the courtroom before that information is revealed by the opponent. Many lawyers think this is a good idea if the opponent is likely to reveal the info.
P2
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Support for effectiveness ·
Studies suggest stealing thunder is effective
Studies involve simulated trial situations, not actual trials.
Main point ·
Effectiveness is also supported by psychological explanations
Explanation 1 ·
Volunteering negative info can help credibility
Explanation 2 ·
Causes juries to critically evaluate what opponents will present
Explanation 3 ·
Info revealed multiple times (by both plaintiff and defense) can carry less weight
It's already "old news" by the time the defense brings it up again.
P3
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Explanation 4 ·
Allows lawyer to spin the negative info in a positive way
Jurors will use the early positive framing to guide their later analysis of what comes up in trial.
Potential limit ·
Stealing thunder might not work when info is extremely negative
The very negative info can create a negative framing for jurors, which they'll apply to what comes up in trial.
Passage Style
Single position
11.
Which one of the following ████ ███ ██████ ███████ ██ █ ██████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████
a
careful timing of ███ ████████████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ █ █████ ████
The author never suggests that timing a revelation to precede the opposition’s similar message by only “short time” (as opposed to a longer time) increases the effectiveness of stealing thunder.
b
some lawyers' superior █████ ██ █████████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ██ █ ███████
Not supported. The author never mentions lawyers’ skill at determining how jurors are likely to respond.
c
the willingness of ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ █████ ███ ████ ████████
Not supported. The author never mentions the varying willingness of clients to testify as a factor in effectiveness of stealing thunder.
d
jurors' desire to ██████ ██ █ ████ ████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███████
e
lawyers' careful screening ██ ███████████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ███████████
The author never mentions screening of jurors as a factor in effectiveness of stealing thunder.