Pozner on Cross: Advanced Cross-Examination Techniques
Using the Chapter Method
Friday, September 16, 2022
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
University of Southern Maine
(Hannaford Hall at the Abromsom Center, Portland)
This September, MACDL is proud to welcome to Maine the master of cross-examination himself: Larry Pozner! Criminal defense attorneys, MCILS-rostered attorneys, and other civil litigators and trial attorneys are welcomed to register and attend this exciting event. (This event is not open to prosecutors or people who work in the judicial branch.)
Please see below for more information about Larry Pozner and the subject of his presentation, which has been received by practitioners across the country to rave reviews.
Breakfast, lunch, and snacks will be provided on-site and are included in the price of registration.
The cost of attendance is:
MACDL Member: $150
Non-MACDL Member: $200
Payment can be made through our website (with PayPal as our processor) or by sending a check or money order in the full amount to: MACDL, P.O. Box 17642, Portland, ME 04112. All questions regarding payment and this event in general can be directed to Tina Nadeau, MACDL Executive Director, at mainemacdl@gmail.com.
Please note: All payments must be received and processed in advance of the date of the event. Registrants with outstanding balances will not be allowed access to this event. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Additionally, registration fees are non-refundable.
If you practice criminal defense and are not currently a MACDL member but wish to join our organization prior to registering, you may do so at: mainemacdl.org
This event is pending approval for 6 general CLE credits with the Board of Bar Overseers and MCILS.
POZNER ON CROSS:
Use The Chapter Method® to Win!
It’s not your strong opening argument. It’s not your skillful direct. It’s not how many of your impassioned objections the judge sustains. It’s not your confident demeanor. It’s not even how you tie your theory of the case together with a dazzling closing statement bow.
What wins your trial is your cross.
Cross-examination is the single most important element of a trial well-conducted. When you learn to do it right, Larry Pozner says, you accomplish four critical goals: (1) you amp up the witness’s voice to relate each fact of your story to the jury; (2) you break that story down into clear, veritical “chapters” – factual building blocks that trigger and channel jury cognitions; (3) you construct logical, semantic links between your opening and closing – links necessary for the jury to resonate with your theory of the case; and (4) you use witness emotion – like anxiety -- to reconstruct fading memories, compel honesty, eliminate distortions, close down paths to irrational outcomes, and empower your jury to reach a clear decision.
Pozner shares signature techniques well-grounded in current thinking about the neuroscience of decision, memory, and emotion. He trains you on three tactical rules of cross-examination that have made his bestselling book, Cross-Examination: Science and Techniques (3rd Ed., LexisNexis) a wildly popular bible for courtroom lawyers. He explains how leading questions can moderate witness behavior on the stand; how simple sentence construction, fact-ordering, and the paintbrush of mental imagery can make a witness malleable; and how simple, logic-based facts can build memorable narrative, channel judge and jury cognition, and drive the engine of inference to your advantage.
Pozner calls his technique “The Chapter Method of Cross-Examination.” Learn it just once, and you can use it with spectacular results for the rest of your career. This entertaining, hands-on training offers you sample “chapters” and powerful sample scripts that you can tailor to your own facts. Let Pozner teach you how to derail your opponent and impeach the key witness – even the most evasive, memory- challenged or talkative one -- in just a matter of minutes.
More about Larry:
Larry Pozner is a nationally recognized trial lawyer, lecturer, and author. His book Cross Examination: Science and Techniques (Lexis, co-authored with Roger Dodd) is now in its 3rd edition and continues to be America’s bestselling book on cross. Reviewers have described the book in words such as “long”, and “in English.”
Larry’s lectures are built around the newest tools for understanding how to motivate jurors to award us the verdict we seek, the advanced techniques of cross that can immediately result in an advantage in trial, and how we can all become quicker at crafting the cross examinations that win cases.
Larry began his career in the Colorado Public Defender system. He later formed a criminal defense firm, and a subsequent firm handling both plaintiff and defense sides of document-intensive civil matters for business large and small, but if we are being blunt, mostly large. For many years Larry defended the Denver Broncos franchise in trials including the lawsuit challenging Pat Bowlen’s purchase of the team. Larry won, which is why he could remain in Colorado.
Larry is a Past-president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America for Bet-the-Company litigation, and in Criminal Defense, both White Collar and Non-White Collar crimes.
