MCLE Presents: Pozner on Cross

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, veridical “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 guide 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.