The Defendant’s Statement Is Out. What Can You Say?

More than most lawyers think, and less than they would like. The complaint is a public record, so what it alleges can be repeated. The trial publicity rule lets a lawyer reply to publicity the other side started, limited to what is needed to answer it. What you cannot do is talk about a witness’s credibility or about evidence that may not come in. Inside those lines, the first hour is yours.

Three things to do in the first hour

First, point the reporter to the complaint. It is the one document the defendant’s statement is written to talk around, and it is public. Second, give counsel one sentence to approve, and only one: what the complaint alleges and what the statement does not address. On the Johns Hopkins matter, the institution’s lawyer said the doctor went rogue. The answer was not a sentence about the doctor. It was a question about the institution: would this have gone on for 25 years at a clinic for wealthy patients? Third, give the reporter the record, on background if counsel prefers, so the next story is built on documents rather than on two statements.

What not to say

Nothing about the character or credibility of anyone on the other side. Nothing about what a witness will say. Nothing about test results or documents that may be inadmissible. Nothing that reads as a prediction of the outcome. Every one of those is in the comment to Rule 3.6, and every one is what a reporter on deadline will ask for. The answer is the public record, every time.

Why the first day decides the frame

Whichever account a reader hears first becomes the lens for every later fact. If “isolated incident” lands first, a pattern reads as an exception. If the complaint’s account lands first, the defendant’s statement reads as the exception. Being right is not enough if you are right second. Why that is → The Hopkins case →