SRS Online began in 2011 to produce instructional videos for use in trial advocacy training and skills practice. Video is an excellent medium for teaching trial advocacy skills. It provides information in a medium that is readily absorbed; it can be interrupted as work-day demands may require; and it can be repeated many times. With field testing and review, we developed an optimal format for most
advocacy skills training online – special made-for-video materials in fifteen-minute segments tightly focused on one topic with a lecture-and-demonstration format. The company’s videos are in two series: one dealing with trials and the other dealing with pre-trial depositions. There are some similarities in examining witnesses in both these situations, but also some important differences. For example, a judge rules on objections immediately in a trial situation, but there is normally no judge present at a deposition, so the witness’s testimony may be taken despite a pending objection. Typically depositions are taken in advance of trial, and more practitioners do deposition work than trial work.
