Most trial lawyers walk into voir dire with a script and a checklist.

Throw both out, says Mel Orchard of the Spence Law Firm in Wyoming, a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates.

He opens instead by asking jurors whether anything affected them on the way in that morning — then stays silent for a long time.

Talking with hosts Harry Plotkin and Dan Kramer, Mel explains why preconditioning doesn't work, why he no longer lets the panel debate the case in real time, how a personal share draws the poison out of a tough case, and how he preconditions jurors to tens of millions of dollars in voir dire using David Ball's framework.

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