Topics in "Product Liability Supergroup"
Click each topic below to skip directly to the discussion.
The group is introduced and the Butlers provide background on the case, a suit against Fiat Chrysler over the 2012 death of Remington Walden in a Jeep explosion.
What you'll learn:
Quotable moment:
In a case where there is no defense, and that applies to a lot of auto products cases, you tell the jury that. You show the jury that. — Jim Butler on his approach to auto products liability cases.
Questioning a corporate representative
The Butlers outline their questioning of Chrysler executive Judson Estes and detail the importance of his testimony to establishing their case, while the group discusses how to approach questioning a corporate representative.
What you'll learn:
Quotable moment:
You want to force the defendant in a defenseless case… to put a witness on the stand. In this case that approach… forced them to put up their number-two executive. — Jim Butler, on how a corporate executive's testimony on the witness stand can be crucial.
Questioning a defense reconstruction expert
The Butlers explain their approach to questioning Chrysler's accident reconstruction expert, as well as how they successfully argued for the admission of other similar incident, or OSI, evidence, while the group outlines how they approach comparable situations.
What you'll learn:
Quotable moment:
Getting in evidence of other similar instances in these products cases is probably one of the most important things that you can accomplish. — Spagnoli on the critical nature of OSI evidence.
Deposing a high-level executive
The group discusses the deposition of then-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne concerning the company's use of rear fuel tanks and the Butlers' use of that testimony in trial.
What you'll learn:
Quotable moment:
Sometimes the most effective lawyering is asking very simple questions. Just get to the point. Don’t hammer issues that are technical in nature. — Turner on keeping questions simple.
Arguing the measure of a life when requesting damages
The group walks through Jeb Butler's closing on damages, in which he used a family heirloom to argue that damages go beyond a "market value."
What you'll learn:
Quotable moment:
You need to make it personal…. If the jurors believe that you believe it, then they’re going to give the money, but if they don’t believe that you believe it, they’re not. — Panish on what it takes to successfully argue a damage request.
Testimony of surviving family as damage evidence
The group discusses testimony of Remington Walden's mother and explains the importance of such testimony to measuring damages.
What you'll learn:
Quotable moment:
You have to really work with your clients to make sure that they understand that they’re the only ones who can convey to a jury who this person was, so they have to be able to talk about them.— Spagnoli on preparing surviving family to take the stand.
The group analyzes Jim Butler's damage argument, in which he walks through the life Remington Walden will never live.
What you'll learn:
Quotable moment:
Think about what is really going on in the case. Not evidentiary battles, not particularly what the law has to say but what is really going on in the case and the truth of it, with no flash at all and no cover — Jeb Butler on the most effective damage arguments.
Medical experts and medical evidence
The group analyzes testimony from the independent medical examiner in the case and her conclusions on Remington Walden's cause of death. They talk about successful approaches to that line of questioning.
What you'll learn:
Quotable Moment:
Sometimes the best thing you can do as a lawyer is just shut up and let the witness talk — Jeb Butler on a less-is-more approach to questioning.
Other similar incident testimony
The group analyzes testimony concerning OSI evidence and statistics and outline the best ways to admit such testimony and how to frame it for jurors.
What you'll learn:
Quotable moment:
Judges are really afraid of this kind of evidence. You really… have to jump through the hoops to, not just show the pictures of the accident vehicles to their expert, but to actually have a jury hear from other people who were in these vehicles when they got rear-ended and they caught fire, or they saw it. — Spagnoli on how to make the most of OSI evidence.
The panel takes questions from the viewers on a range of issues.
Next Steps
CVN offers hours of video on the topics the group discussed. Here's where to head next in our library.
Watch the full trial: Walden v. Chrysler Group LLC.
Watch CVN's trial coverage of our panelists:
Learn about the 10 must-watch auto product liability trials in CVN's library.