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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey, everyone. Scott Benton here. How are you? I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from law school student into your professional career. as a bona fide attorney and where we make the practice of law fun. Hopefully we’re making this fun for you. Today we’re going to answer the question of why should I dig deeply for case facts?
[00:00:29] Scott Benton: Why should I dive deeply or dig deeply for case facts?
[00:00:34] Scott Benton: [00:01:00] Now when a potential client inquires about your firm’s services, there’s usually an intake process that takes place in order for the firm to talk to the client. to the potential client and to better understand the nature of their case. This is really for the firm and for the potential client and they can determine if there is an actual case here to pursue because sometimes the case facts they just don’t add up.
[00:01:50] Scott Benton: Sometimes the case facts, there’s, they’re showing that there’s no real value to a case. So it’s not going to really make any sense to move forward with it. [00:02:00] And that’s. Helpful information to know before a client ends up spending a lot of money. That’s really not going to return anything That’s significant for them But on the other hand if the facts merit any further inquiry with an attorney in the firm Then the person who does the intake they’re going to make an appointment and they’re going to have the potential client come back in and meet with one of the attorneys so that they can dig deeper into the story.
[00:02:26] Scott Benton: Now, once that, at this point, potential client is sitting in front of attorney, sometimes it’s on the phone, sometimes it’s like a video call, that type of thing. But once the potential client is in one way or another in front of the attorney this is what’s called the initial consultation, by the way.
[00:02:44] Scott Benton: And this is where even more case facts. Another level of case facts are going to be explored. They’re going to be discussed. And after the attorney looks over the notes that were taken during the intake meeting, and sometimes there’s other supplemental [00:03:00] documentation. Sometimes there’s legal documents or other sort of maybe reports from Redfin if there’s, property involved or something.
[00:03:08] Scott Benton: The attorney can now ask much more pointed questions. and those questions can be followed up on the material that’s already been collected and that the attorney has. So the potential client for those more pointed questions are, they’re going to offer a much deeper level of of information and the attorney is going to have a deeper level of understanding of the case based on the answers that the client provides.
[00:03:38] Scott Benton: So if the attorney determines that, yes, this is in fact a case that’s well worth pursuing, and if the client hires the firm now the priorities have changed. So that’s gonna mean conducting an additional process of digging even further and more deeply into the case facts [00:04:00] that are going to produce even finer detail to better determine the story of this case and really to help determine the best overall case strategy.
[00:04:09] Scott Benton: So to answer the question of why you should dig deeply into the case facts is largely because It’s likely going to reach information that you’re going to need to tell the most compelling story possible of the case. It’s also, by the way, going to help you determine which evidence to introduce into your case, and it’s going to really help you best understand the background facts.
[00:04:34] Scott Benton: Now, background facts are facts that aren’t really necessarily pointing towards the law, so you’re not really going to use them. In a courtroom or a judge isn’t going to see these background facts. Background facts are generally going to provide motivation and reasons behind why your client wants to pursue these particular legal goals in the [00:05:00] first place.
[00:05:00] Scott Benton: Background facts they’re usually just between you and your client. And Sometimes or oftentimes they’re really tied into what the client wants to do if they walk away with any monetary reward that they get as a result of working with you and your firm and then ultimately prevailing in some manner.
[00:05:20] Scott Benton: Usually you’ll talk about what they want to purchase or what they’re going to do with the money. Now, another reason you want to dig deeply into the case facts is that in many examples, the clients have been carrying around these case facts in their heads, sometimes for years, sometimes for decades.
[00:05:39] Scott Benton: So your goal. Is not only to capture those case facts and as many of them as you possibly can, that they’ve been carrying around with them forever, but it’s also to essentially get them out of the client’s head so that your client’s mind completely empties.
[00:05:58] Scott Benton: Totally [00:06:00] empties. Now, why, you might ask yourself, why would you want to have your client just mind dump everything they’re carrying around in their head about the case? What’s the value? Don’t you just want the case facts? No, actually, there’s another reason. And remember, this is why we’re digging so deeply for case facts.
[00:06:21] Scott Benton: The reason that you want your client to just mind dump all that information is because Nature hates a vacuum. That’s why. What does that mean? Nature hates a vacuum. What that means is that with your client’s mind now, in theory, completely empty, having mind dumped just absolutely everything about the case, their brain has been freed up and new space is made available to create new memories and new ideas.
[00:06:50] Scott Benton: That come in with new thoughts, new insight and largely all new information that’s going to fill up that empty space. [00:07:00] And that is the exact moment that your client is going to start remembering things that they pretty much otherwise forgot. Or they’re going to start to make connections that they just weren’t able to make.
[00:07:10] Scott Benton: before they did the mine dump. And many new important pieces of information, they’re likely to start flooding in. So by listening to their story about the case, you’ve effectively engaged a process that will help your client recall so many additional details and facts, that in the best case scenario, you’re going to uncover a few select We’ll call them golden nuggets that you’re going to need to bolster the story of your case.
[00:07:40] Scott Benton: It’s going to improve your argument. It’s going to strengthen the case strategies that you eventually present to your client. So there’s a lot of benefit to doing this. The client is then going to decide on the best direction to go for the case based on your now even sharper ability to analyze the pros and [00:08:00] cons of each strategy.
[00:08:01] Scott Benton: So there’s a level of clarity. that happens here by having the client completely dump out all that information and letting new information come in to occupy that empty space. So digging deeply for case facts will help give you that critical edge that you’re going to need to exploit all the nuances and the finer distinctions to help improve your accuracy in determining helpful and not so helpful case strategies.
[00:08:29] Scott Benton: When deciding on how deep to go with a case, at the firm I work at, we like to say you want to focus on going three levels deep. Now you get there by asking a series of open ended questions. Not closed ended questions, where the answer is one or two words, but open ended questions.
[00:08:47] Scott Benton: That, I’m sure when you start asking those, open ended questions tend to lead to more open ended questions. And that’s how you get deeper and deeper and deeper into the story. So for instance, you might say something like, and [00:09:00] this is one of my favorites. You might say, and then what happened?
[00:09:02] Scott Benton: You listen, they give you an AUI. Oh yeah. That’s they said, really? They said that. And then what happened? No kidding. They just they got in their car and sped away and then what happened? And you just keep going on and on that. And then what happened? It’s a great open-ended question.
[00:09:17] Scott Benton: People generally don’t notice that you’re asking the same question over and over again, as long as you’re fully engaged in the conversation. That, ultimately, it’s going to take you, like I said, down a series of levels and you’re just going to keep going until you’re able to uncover absolutely every shred of case facts that are available and you know that you’ve uncovered them all because your client generally, they just have nothing left to say.
[00:09:41] Scott Benton: They can’t talk anymore because you’ve exhausted them once again. So I hope that’s been helpful and I hope that answers the question of why we should do this. dig so deeply in the case facts. I’m your host, Scott Benton. I am the host of a classroom 2 courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in.
[00:09:56] Scott Benton: Now, if this is information that you like and you want to [00:10:00] receive an alert every time 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.
[00:10:08] Scott Benton: You can sign up to receive alerts. And one will be sent out to you every time we put out a new episode. And if this is also material that you’re enjoying, you can always help us out, help others out, help yourself out by liking, sharing, and subscribing. That way it’s going to help you stay on top of our newest episodes.
[00:10:26] Scott Benton: 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 much.
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