PrepTest 142, Section 3, Question 15

Working the answers

• A
  Correct

  A more favorable view of the client is the benefit the technique seeks. The negative information can still hurt; stealing thunder succeeds when it does less damage than the opponent's first disclosure would have done.

• B

  Counterarguments are relevant, but the described warning prompts jurors to form their own. The lawyer isn't necessarily introducing a ready-made set for them to use. B turns one possible psychological mechanism into a different account of what the technique reliably supplies.

• C

  “Invariably” would make broadly used stealing thunder a guarantee of victory. The author gives explicit limitations and only reports effectiveness in a range of applications. Reducing one fact's damage also doesn't settle every other issue in a case.

• D

  Capturing attention isn't the success being described. The strategy concerns how jurors interpret damaging information and regard the client, not simply how attentively they listen.

• E

  Revealing the fact first is the method. Dramatically beating the opponent to the revelation is not the ultimate benefit the author calls effectiveness. We need an effect on the jury's view, not merely successful scheduling.