There is a very fine line that runs through preparing a client to testify at trial and manufacturing a story for the client. Many times–and I’ve seen this happen–attorneys, who for some reason have this need to control everything, think that the story is one thing, and they try to shoehorn everything into it, and force the client’s answers to conform to the attorney’s story.
The problem with that is it’s the CLIENT’S story, and the attorney is missing something. If there is this struggle between client and attorney as to what the case is going to be, my experience is, the attorney needs to take a step back and gain greater understanding of what his client knows, has experienced, has lived with.
Watch the video of the rest of the interview on Legal Counselor: Your Client is Your Best Weapon
