Just so you know that I’m not being overly harsh on this idiot in Kenosha, Chief Justice Warren Berger once said that 95% of trial lawyers were bad at their job and I think he was being generous. But that’s no excuse for not knowing what your own witness is going to say!

Now let me tell you what it really takes to be a good litigator. Obviously intelligence but more importantly the ability to concentrate 100% for 7 or 8 hours a day. Those of you who read this and are still working, ask yourself how many hours a day at work you are actually concentrating totally and completely on what you are doing 100%. I’ll be generous and give you one hour and that is generous. If your in a trial you have to be able to do it all day. If it’s your witness you have to ask the questions and be able to ask follow up questions to make sure you get the information you need from your witness. I always told my witnesses when we went over their testimony not to worry, if they forgot something I would ask questions to make sure we got it all right. You also had to be ready to respond to objections from the other side.

When the opposing side had a witness you have to be prepared to object to a question instantaneously before the witness answered while simultaneously taking notes for cross examination. It’s total concentration and there’s not a lot of people who can really do it. Most attorneys have a prepared set of questions and don’t really pay attention to what was said before going on to their next prepared question.

But that still doesn’t excuse not knowing what your own witness will say!