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
10.
It can be most reasonably ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████
a
warning jurors that █ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ███ █ ███████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████
This doesn’t involve revealing negative information about one’s own client.
b
disclosing in opening ██████████ ██ █ ███████ ███████ █████████ ████████████ ████ █████ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████
This best fits stealing thunder. The lawyer reveals negative information about her own client before that information is revealed by the other side.
c
responding to the ████████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ██████ ███ █ █████ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████
This doesn’t involve revealing negative information before the other side reveals it.
d
pointing out to ██████ ██████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████
This doesn’t involve revealing negative information about one’s own client.
e
stressing that one's ███████ █████ ███████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████████ █████████████ ██████ ██ ██████████
This doesn’t involve revealing negative information about a client before that information is revealed by the other side.