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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast, where we help you easily transition from law school as a student, into your professional career as an attorney, and where we even make the practice of law fun. Go figure if we can do that. And it is fun.
[00:00:23] Scott Benton: Today, we are going to talk about, how much evidence do you need to win a case?
[00:00:32] Scott Benton: Now, when you’re working in litigation and you get to a point where you’re in a hearing, or you’re in a trial in front of a judge, you want to really have several different types of evidence available, and several different pieces of those several different types of evidence that are all solid. And they all point in the same direction, concluding your point, in order to win the case. Now, that really translates into an [00:01:00] absolute mountain of evidence.
[00:01:02] Scott Benton: In trials, there’s this idea of meeting the clear and convincing standard, which is actually a level that’s impossible to reach. But it’s what you’re aiming for. It’s where you’re trying to hit. It’s not just with a few pieces of evidence, but layers and layers of evidence. In fact, right when you think you have enough evidence to present, there’s going to be this sort of temptation to stop collecting it.
[00:01:30] Scott Benton: But as the case is not over yet, you don’t want to stop collecting evidence, because you don’t know what the outcome of the case is going to be. But In order for you to become the best attorney possible, now this is really where the good attorneys are separated from the great attorneys. And you don’t want to merely be a good attorney. You want to be a great attorney. And you are going to reach that point during the case, where you’re collecting evidence and you feel, you know what, [00:02:00] we have enough here, but you need to remember to keep going. And you want to get another layer of evidence, on top of the layer, hopefully layers of evidence that you already have.
[00:02:12] Scott Benton: And then once you have that, if the trial is still going and you’ve been collecting evidence, you want yet another layer on top of all of those other layers. Although, you’re never going to reach that impossible finish line of the clear and convincing standard, you’re still going to get as close as you possibly can. And you’re going to do that because you want to cut off any areas of reasonable doubt that you can, that the other side can justify.
[00:02:38] Scott Benton: You want to block off their strategies, so to speak. And that’s what that layer upon layer of evidence strategy is really going to accomplish. You’re going to make it impossible for the other side to tear away, or pick down your argument, by using flimsy evidence, or sometimes you just have one kind of layer of evidence that they’re going to [00:03:00] find a vulnerable spot in order to break through. Now, if you have layer after layer, you have all of that added protection built into your case, so that they’re not going really have an easy time of breaking through your argument.
[00:03:14] Scott Benton: So in other words, you might feel that you want to become confident, at some point with your evidence. And now, you’re going to get a little bit lazy, because you have this evidence and you feel a little overly confident. But this is precisely the point in time, when you want to remain vigilant.
[00:03:30] Scott Benton: You want to keep going after that evidence. You need to keep looking and keep digging because again, that’s what’s going to set you apart from other trial attorneys who really have lesser or even more mediocre skills, than you do. And that’s not you. You have strong skills that are going to allow you to prevail in any kind of hearing or any kind of trial. And this is how you do it with, this layering method.
[00:03:55] Scott Benton: As an example of what I’m talking about here with this layering method, you might be [00:04:00] familiar with a film that came out, it was a 1992 film, came out of 20th Century Fox. It’s a movie called, My Cousin Vinny. And it’s stars, Joe Pesci, and Marisa Tomei, and Ralph Macchio. Where Vinny, the Joe Pesci character, he’s an attorney who travels to Alabama to get his cousin, who’s Ralph Macchio, and his cousin’s friend out of jail. They’ve both been wrongly accused of murder. And in spite of Vinny having practice only for five weeks, as we learn in the movie, in this point in his career, he’s only been at it for five weeks and he really has no trial experience, whatsoever. Vinny is able to stockpile so much evidence, on top of evidence, that in the final courtroom scene that essentially, the state prosecutor who’s prosecuting the Ralph Macchio character and Ralph Macchio’s friend, he has no choice but to drop all charges, and Vinny ultimately wins the case.
[00:04:57] Scott Benton: And Vinny wins the case because of precisely [00:05:00] the same layering method that he ends up doing. And to do this, the first thing Vinny does, this is the final courtroom scene, so you can fast forward to it if you want, you can even find this clip on YouTube and play it. So, if you haven’t seen the movie, and you should. It’s a great film. But if you haven’t seen it, you can go check out that scene. Just go on YouTube and watch it, after you have finished watching this podcast episode.
[00:05:24] Scott Benton: But to do this, the first thing that he does is he calls in his fiance, Lisa. And Lisa’s played by Marisa Tomei. And Vinny explains to the court. This is his exact quote. He says, this witness is an expert in the field of automobiles, and is being called to rebut the testimony of George Wilbur.
[00:05:43] Scott Benton: And for context, George Wilbur is the automotive expert in the movie. He’s an expert witness that the prosecution has brought in, to prove that the Ralph Macchio character and Ralph Macchio’s friend are both guilty of this murder conviction. Now, from there, Vinny [00:06:00] has Lisa, use her vast knowledge of automobiles to explain the tire tracks in a picture that she’s looking at.
[00:06:07] Scott Benton: And she says that those tire tracks could not have possibly been made by the car that the defendants were driving, because the car the defendants were driving couldn’t have made those tire tracks, because the car that made the tire tracks had independent traction, based on the pattern of those tire tracks.
[00:06:27] Scott Benton: And she says that the car that the defendants were driving did not have independent traction. And she names the type of car, and the year, and the make of the model of the car that would have made those tracks. And she says, that car is very different, but it’s similar in appearance to the car that the defendants were driving.
[00:06:47] Scott Benton: Both cars, I think, they are both made by General Motors GM, so there were a lot of similarities. But then, he doesn’t really stop there. He next recalls George Wilbur to the stand. Now, George Wilbur, as I said, he is the [00:07:00] expert witness in automobiles that the prosecutor had brought in. And George verifies that Lisa’s testimony is correct. And he establishes Lisa as a credible expert witness, at that point. Now, Vinny could have stopped there. But he doesn’t stop, remember, because he’s layering his evidence. Now, Vinny then calls in the sheriff because Vinny wants to get the jury beyond that point of reasonable doubt.
[00:07:30] Scott Benton: He wants to move his entire argument, as far into beyond reasonable doubt, as possible. And so, he brings in the sheriff. And Vinny, previously, there’s a scene where Vinny asks the sheriff to go look up the same make and model car that Lisa had testified about, to see if there were any traffic infractions, or any reports of that car being in any of the counties nearby in the last couple of [00:08:00] weeks. And that could have made those tire marks.
[00:08:03] Scott Benton: Now, furthermore, the sheriff says, he did some additional digging around. And he found that there were two people who were arrested in a car that matches the description, that Lisa had given testimony on. And the two people that had been arrested, they actually matched the description of the defendants in the courtroom, the Ralph Macchio and Ralph Macchio’s friend.
[00:08:24] Scott Benton: And the sheriff says that, the other two people happen to have the same 357 Magnum that was used, the same kind of gun that was used in the murder that the defendants were on trial for. So you see, it’s that kind of layering, just over and over again, that type of layering of evidence that you want to have, when you go into a trial.
[00:08:46] Scott Benton: And this is why you want to continually collect more and more evidence, all the way through the trial, until there’s been a decision made, until the case is closed, because you’re going to just establish [00:09:00] more and more credibility to the argument in your case. And you’re going to make it harder for the other side to poke holes in it.
[00:09:07] Scott Benton: So you really never want to stop looking for new evidence. And make sure that you’re going in there as armed as possible, the way that Vinny goes into his courtroom scene, in the 1992 film by 20th Century Fox, My Cousin Vinny. Definitely watched that movie, if you haven’t. It’s a great film. I think, Marisa Tomei won an Oscar for Best Actress, if I remember correctly. It’s a long time ago.
[00:09:32] Scott Benton: I hope that this answers the question of how much evidence do you need, in order to win a case. And the answer is that you need, an endless amount of evidence, layer after layer to win a case, and that you never ever stop collecting it, until the case has been decided.
[00:09:48] Scott Benton: So in short, if you want to use the My Cousin Vinny idea in your own cases, then you’re only going to strengthen everything about your argument. And you’re going to have a much better chance of winning. You want to [00:10:00] layer as much as you can on top of the evidence you already have, so you can get as close as you can, to the impossible to reach level of clear and convincing evidence. So I hope that’s helpful. Especially, if you’re planning on going into litigation, you’re really going to want to watch that movie and use that strategy.
[00:10:16] Scott Benton: I’m Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Now, if you like this podcast and you’d like to get notified whenever we put out a new episode, you can go to our website. Our website is Classroom2Courtroom.com. That’s classroom, the number two, courtroom.com. You can put in your contact information, and you will get an alert, whenever we put out a new episode. And if you do like this material and you’re finding it valuable, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe. And that way, you’ll stay on top of all of our newest episodes, and help spread the word. And until next time. We hope you’ll join us in making the world a better place, one client at a time. Thank you so [00:11:00] much.
