Let's say you sued your doctor.
For medical malpractice.
You claim he was careless.
You believe his carelessness caused you harm.
You know your harm is permanent.
You know your harm is disabling.
You had no choice but to sue him.
To obtain money as a form of compensation for your injuries.
Let's say you failed to do what your doctor told you to do.
Let's also say you delayed in going for tests your doctor wanted you to have.
You delayed your own diagnosis and treatment.
You had excuses.
You had your reasons.
You tell your attorney not to focus on what you did and how you delayed your own treatment.
You want your attorney to pound away at your doctor for not treating you appropriately.
For not treating you in accordance with good and accepted medical practice.
Your attorney agrees with this strategy.
Your attorney convinces himself that by focusing all of his energy on what your doctor did wrong, the jury will ignore your own actions that caused part of the delay in diagnosing your cancer.
He is mistaken.
Badly.
This may be a fatal tactical mistake.
A mistake that will likely backfire.
A mistake that rookies make.
A mistake that an experienced attorney would never make.
You can NEVER ignore a weakness in your case hoping the jury will ignore it.
You can NEVER ignore a weakness by thinking that the defense will not focus on it.
Instead, they will hound you for not addressing it.
The defense will focus a good deal of their energy showing the jury that you are intentionally ignoring it.
The defense will argue that you have no defense to your actions that caused or contributed to your injuries.
Ignoring a weakness in your case is like an ostrich sticking his head in the sand hoping the lion nearby won't see him.
An attorney who (metaphorically) sticks his head in the sand and intentionally ignores a key weakness in your case is doing you and your case a disservice.
The better way to address this is to workshop the weakness.
What this means is to develop a logical explanation for why and how this arose.
To explain and justify why you did not follow through with your doctor's recommendations.
Justifying and explaining will go a long way to undermine the defense attacking your weakness.
You MUST attack your weakness.
You MUST admit your weakness to the jury.
You MUST 'confess' your weakness in the case.
Then, offer a logical explanation.
If you ignore it, the defense will have a field day during closing arguments.
He will argue that you're trying to hide your own careless actions.
He'll argue that you're deceiving the court.
He'll argue that you have no defense to your own actions.
If you did, you'd have addressed it and offered an explanation.
He'll ask the jury to hold you totally responsible for your own injuries.
An experienced defense lawyer will take this one little weakness and make it a big part of his defense.
You and your lawyer cannot ignore your weaknesses.
You must confront it head on.
You must confront it first.
Failing to do so could destroy your case.
