More Likely Than Not

Jury trial consultant Jesse Wilson built his victim-to-victor framework not in a courtroom, but in a prison theater program, where removing judgment became the key to authentic communication. A former Julliard-trained actor turned full-time trial consultant for nearly 15 years, Jesse now travels the country helping lawyers reach record verdicts, drawing on his two books. He joins host Charla Aldous to explain why a witness is not her pain but the strength of trying to overcome it, why joy functi

Most lawyers build their case around closing argument — but the trial is already decided long before that. Shane Read, jury consultant, trial trainer, and author of six books on trial advocacy, joins host Charla Aldous to break down the brain science of trial storytelling. A former assistant U.S. attorney who tried more than 100 jury trials in 30 years, Shane explains why modern juries — digital natives and digital immigrants — process information differently, why pictures outperform word-heavy

Private investigation isn't just for criminal law — it's how plaintiff attorneys win before they ever file. Caleb Miller hosts Mike Thompson, founder of Ideal Intel, a Texas-based investigation firm. A former Liverpool police officer turned surveillance specialist, Mike now works exclusively with plaintiff law firms on personal injury and wrongful death cases. The conversation covers evidence preservation windows — video footage disappears after 30 days — and Mike's "discovery before discovery"

The key to winning a big verdict in a wrongful death case often lies in showing jurors the opposite of big money: scarcity. What is it that the decedent didn’t have? It could have been the last lick of ice cream. Or getting their affairs in order. Whether they were 20 or 80, they lost valuable parts of life. Dirk Vandever suggests that the job of the plaintiff’s lawyer is to put a value on that scarcity. In this conversation with host Charla Aldous, he explains how he’s done it in his successful

Here’s the scenario: Jarrett Stone and counsel for a major insurance company are emailing each other. One of them is sitting in a massive high-rise. The other is in his sweats in a converted attic office space. If you guessed that Jarrett is the second one, you’d be right. “It’s kind of trippy…” he says in this conversation with hosts Caleb Miller and Eleanor Aldous. The founder of Law Venture and author of Win the PI Game, Jarrett pulls back the curtain on how he built a thriving solo firm on w

"The best advice for a trial lawyer is: this is not about you," says Meg Simonian, a medical malpractice trial lawyer practicing in Alaska who has navigated some of the most challenging trial conditions in the country. Meg joins host Charla Aldous to discuss building a career in a state with restrictive caps on non-economic damages — and how she pushes past those limits. She shares her hard-won strategies for trying cases in remote Alaska communities — including how to understand the "personalit