Legal Tactics Quotes

A good lawyer knows the law; a clever one takes the judge to lunch.

A defendant can use discovery to run out the clock on the plaintiff and to make the plaintiff run out of money.

Each lawyer makes somebody unhappy either by beating him, embarrassing him or tying him in knots.

The [George W.] Bush administration would go into court on any kind of a case that they thought might embarrass them and would argue that it was a state secret and the case should not be continued.[Barack] Obama is doing the same thing, even though he promised not to.

Lawyers-a profession it is to disguise matters.

Prosecutors tend to love conspiracy charges because the rules of evidence are easier, meaning you can get more in to help prove a crime.

In cross examination, as in fishing, nothing is more ungainly than a fisherman pulled into the water by his catch.

Officials who wish to deny minorities the right to vote adopt one tactic. When a lawsuit finally gets decided that the tactic is unconstitutional or otherwise illegal, the official just switches tactics…. Election enforcement lawsuits are different and demand more [than typical lawsuits.]

They are lawyers, who try to use words — foolishly sometimes — to extricate themselves from mistakes.

Despite the apparent absoluteness of the First Amendment, there are any number of ways of getting around it, ways that are known to any student of law. In general, the strategy is to manipulate the distinction between speech and action which is at bottom a distinction between inconsequential and consequential behavior.

Right" he said "Let's get one thing clear. I am not here to teach you law-I am here to teach you loopholes.

Our strategy was to give Judge Hoffman a heart attack. We gave the court system a heart attack, which is even better.

A lawyer is just like an attack dog, only without a conscience.

With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him.

Donald Trump and his personal attorney want to lay the foundation to discredit whatever Bob Mueller comes up with. They're essentially engaging in a scorched-earth litigation strategy that is beginning with trying to discredit the prosecutor.

Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.

People don’t willingly cooperate [with a prosecutor] unless you’ve got something to hold over their heads.

Modernity has replaced ethics with legalese, and the law can be gamed with a good lawyer.

Usually when attorneys are assembling a jury, they're just looking for sheep that are easily impressed.

The law will argue anything, with anybody who will pay the law for the use of its brains and its time.

Remember that it is not the lawyer who knows the most law, but the one who best prepares his case, who wins.

Sir, it is wrong to stir up law-suits; but when once it is certain that a law-suit is to go on, there is nothing wrong in a lawyer's endeavouring that he shall have the benefit, rather than another.

As a rule lawyers tend to want to do whatever they can to win.

Lawyers are very, very good at keeping you out of prison, but they will sacrifice your reputation and credibility to do so.