Litigation Skills Program FAQ

Check out the information below to learn the answers to the most frequently asked questions regarding the Litigation Skills Program. If you do not find the answer to your question here, just e-mail us and we will do our best to provide you with the information you need.

• I know I want to be a trial lawyer someday. In what order should I take the Trial Ad courses?

Answer: Ideally, you should take Pretrial Litigation and then Basic Civil Trial Advocacy, then Appellate Advocacy. However, the courses stand on their own quite well and can be taken in any order.

• I’m not sure I want to be a trial lawyer. What course should I take to find out?

Answer: You should take a Basic Civil Trial Advocacy course. This course will expose you to the excitement and (yes) stress of trying a lawsuit. You may well discover that you thoroughly enjoy being in court and thinking on your feet. Or you may find out now that you are more comfortable behind the scenes. Either way, you will have done yourself a great service by taking the course. Even if you decide you do not want to be a trial lawyer, you will be prepared when you inevitably end up in court on some personal or family matter.

• I know I DO NOT want to be a trial lawyer! Why should I take a Trial Ad course?

Answer: No matter what area of law you enter, you will have friends and family members who come to you with legal problems that they will expect you to handle for them. These most often are family law matters like divorce and/or custody disputes, probation of a will or small contract matters. Eventually, you will find that you cannot gracefully refuse to handle the matter and will find yourself in court. If you have taken the Basic Civil Trial Advocacy course, you will not be lost and will be able to comfortably handle the matter.

• Do I have to have already taken evidence in order to take a Trial Ad course?

Answer: Many of the Trial Ad courses DO require that you have evidence prior to taking the course. After all, the laws and rules of evidence govern most aspects of litigation, trial and appellate work. However, evidence is not required to take Pretrial Litigation or Attorney Communication & Persuasion Techniques. Moreover, beginning in the Fall of 2000, the Litigation Skills Program will be offering a special section of Basic Civil Trial Advocacy for 2d year students who have not had evidence. This course will include an evidence "short course" during the first hour of each classroom session. The course will be taught from 5:30 – 9:30 one night per week. There are also plans for a course in jury dynamics, selection and persuasion that will not require evidence as a prerequisite.

• Can I take Evidence and a Trial Ad course (that requires Evidence) at the same time?

Answer: Only upon permission of the Director of the Litigation Skills Program. To receive permission to take these courses together, the Director will consider the scholastic standing of the student and other extrinsic evidence that the student can manage both courses together.

• What do the Trial Ad courses involve?

Answer: The Pretrial Litigation, Civil Trial Ad and Criminal Trial Ad courses generally involve the students being deemed either a plaintiff/prosecutor or defense attorney and working on one particular case throughout the semester. The students will prepare and practice all skills associated with that case. Each document prepared and each performance rendered will be critiqued by the faculty and the student will generally be able to perform the exercise again in order to seek improvement. Each performance is videotaped, so the student can review his/her performance later. The Trial Ad courses culminate in a full day long trial at the Harris County courthouse where the student picks a jury and tries a case all the way through.

The Appellate Advocacy and Legal Negotiations courses involve various factual situations that the students prepare and practice the related writing, oral and negotiating skills.

The Psychology of Communications course is an interactive course during which the students participate in exercises to increase their abilities to communicate effectively and persuasively.

• Who are the instructors of the Trial Ad courses?

Answer: All the Trial Ad courses are taught by the Program’s Director or local well-known and highly skilled trial lawyers and judges who have completed either a National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) Teacher Training course or the Litigation Skills Program’s Teacher Training course.

• Why is registration for Trial Ad courses done before regular registration and in the Trial Ad offices instead of over the phone?

Answer: The enrollment cap for the Trial Ad courses is quite low (in most cases 14 students). The courses are in high demand and there is usually a waiting list to get into the courses. By registering for these courses in the Trial Ad office prior to regular registration, we can maintain a waiting list and add students from that list to the classes when a student drops the course prior to the beginning of the semester or during the first week of the semester. In that way, there is not the risk of having an open slot in a course when the semester is under way, and having angry students who were told the class was filled at registration.

• Why are all the Trial Ad courses held in the evenings?

Answer: The courses are taught by practicing trial lawyers and judges who generously give of their precious time. They teach here when they have completed their day. We would be unlikely to obtain such high quality talent if we insisted that they interrupt their work day to assist us.

• How much outside class work in involved in the Trial Ad courses?

Answer: With the exception of Attorney Communication & Persuasion Techniques, you can expect the amount of time required outside of class to be higher than the average law school course. However, the work is not reading a case book. It involves preparing a case. In Pretrial Litigation, you will be preparing pleadings that YOU determined were necessary for your case or interviewing witnesses or preparing answers to your opposing counsel’s discovery requests or preparing an outline of questions you plan to ask a witness at a deposition. In the Trial Ad courses, you will be preparing opening and closing statement, a jury panel voir dire, or a direct or cross-examination of a witness. The amount of time involves will depend upon what happens in the case.

• Why are the number of students allowed in the Trial Ad classes so small?

Answer: In order that each student has an equal opportunity to perform each exercise and be critiqued. The small numbers ensure the student close contact with their adjunct faculty and increase the students’ learning experience.

• Is there a final exam in the Trial Ad courses?

Answer: The only course that has a written final exam is the Pretrial Litigation course. That exam is a short answer, true/false and listing type exam that covers areas of pretrial litigation that came up during the preparation of the case that semester. The civil and criminal trial ad courses have a day-long final trial at the Harris County courthouse

• Why are these small Trial Ad courses graded on a standard curve?

Answer: Because the University of Houston Law School Administration requires it.