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Generation J.D.

Trial Binders

By: John Cord

When I was a brand-new associate, I was working with two other very experienced lawyers (Rob Jenner and Ben Glass) on a wrongful death case. We represented the family of a man who was driving home to Virginia from an Orioles game. On I-95, he died instantly when he collided with a tow truck that was stopped in the lane of travel with no lights on.

I had primary responsibility for working up the case. As we got closer and closer to trial, we needed to digest the file into workable notebooks, so everything related to the case was easy to find and use in court.

I had never seen a trial notebook before, and there were so many possibilities for organizing the materials that I was paralyzed with indecision. The case seemed so huge at the time, and I had developed such a close relationship with the plaintiffs that I wanted to do a great job for them. Of course, by the time we were ready to create a notebook system, we were only a few days away from trial (with a billion other things to do). So, Rob sat me down and went through his framework for organizing trial binders. Read the rest of this entry »

Category: Advice, Trial

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