Impeaching Informants: Cross-Examining Snitches, Rats & Cooperators
Program Summary: Confidential informants, cooperating witnesses, and jailhouse snitches are among the prosecution’s most commonly used—and most unreliable—tools in criminal cases. Their testimony is often driven by self-interest, fabricated evidence, and hidden government deals that incentivize dishonesty. For criminal defense attorneys, mastering the art of investigating, cross-examining, and impeaching informants is essential to dismantling the prosecution’s case and protecting clients from wrongful convictions.
This comprehensive video training program equips defense attorneys with the strategies needed to expose informant bias, uncover hidden benefits, and execute powerful impeachment techniques in trial. Key topics include:
- Investigating Informants: How to uncover plea agreements, past testimony, criminal records, and personal history using courthouse records, online research, and private investigators.
- Building the "Rat Book": Organizing a database of an informant’s past statements, contradictions, and prior lies to use in cross-examination.
- Winning Cross-Examinations: Step-by-step techniques to discredit informants, including using prior inconsistent statements, omissions, bias, prior bad acts, and contradictory physical evidence.
- Exposing Law Enforcement’s Role: How to challenge prosecutorial misconduct, unreliable incentivized testimony, and improper use of informants in drug and conspiracy cases.
- Using the RAC Method (Recommit, Accredit, Confront): A powerful framework for impeaching informants with precision and impact.
Whether you’re a seasoned trial lawyer or a defense attorney looking to sharpen your skills, this program provides the battle-tested strategies needed to win cases against informants and snitches. Enroll today and take control of your cross-examinations!
CLE Credit: Up to 6 hours of self-study CLE credit, where authorized. Please confirm with your state's CLE commission to ensure this program is available for self-study CLE certification.
Programs Included:
1. Cross Examination of the Snitch | Robert Fickman
2. Impeaching Snitches in Drug Prosecutions | Jason Downs
3. The Challenges of Co-Defendants and Snitches | Rosemary Scapicchio
4. Cross of the Cooperator to Win Your Case | Heather Pinckney and Nicole Hardin
5. Crossing Informants, Cooperating Witnesses, Snitches and Rats | J.W. Carney, Jr.
6. Impeachment Using the RAC Method | Cathleen Bennett
7. Journeying to Successful Impeachments | Byron Conway
Prices
- List Price $119.00
- Member Price $99.00