The crux of an efficient pretrial strategy is recognizing that it begins when suit is filed and continues—and morphs—throughout each stage of the litigation, right up to when your attorneys thank the jury for their time in the closing argument. It is a combination of playing the game half-a-dozen or so moves into the future and staying light on your feet as the ground shifts beneath you.

Every case can be distilled to a few (and sometimes just one) critical points. It is on these points that either liability or a leveraged resolution depends: Was there authority to sign the contract? Was there adequate notice? Are the liability theories on sufficiently stable ground? Identifying these pressure points (whether favorable or unfavorable) at the outset of the case is essential to efficiently and productively developing the case through litigation, which in turn lands you and your attorneys at trial with everything necessary to win. So how do you get there?