Trial strategy without the polish.
Sari Swears treats trial work as both craft and pressure cooker. Episodes move between courtroom strategy, attorney mindset, jury framing, and practical tools for making hard decisions without getting trapped in overwhelm.
PRESS PLAY
Sari Swears is a brisk, candid show about trial practice, built around the messy reality of preparing cases, standing in front of jurors, and staying functional under pressure. It is not a detached legal lecture. The show favors live explanation, pointed examples, and the kind of repetition that turns a courtroom idea into something an attorney can actually try. Recent episodes return again and again to the relationship between strategy and mindset. Voir dire is framed as a place to let the jury solve real case problems. Non-economic damages become less about formulas and more about whether the attorney has earned enough credibility to own the number. Defense points are treated as framing questions, especially when jurors may shift toward fault or responsibility arguments. A defense verdict with Chrissy Hagen becomes a chance to examine what the jury heard, what could have been clearer, and what the next case can gain from the loss. The show also spends serious time on the attorney’s internal operating system. Burnout, overwork, decision loops, harsh self-talk, fear, and ADHD-like overwhelm are discussed as forces that shape performance in trial and in practice. Coach K’s appearances bring that coaching dynamic to the surface, with conversations about motivation, collaboration, and why grinding oneself down is not a sustainable path to better advocacy. The legal ideas are specific, but the language stays accessible. Terms such as voir dire, non-economic damages, and defense verdict sit beside ordinary talk about calendars, mentoring, brain fog, and choosing a house. That mix is the show’s signature. It argues that juries respond to clarity, credibility, accountability, and human connection, while attorneys need systems and self-trust to deliver those things. The tone can be blunt, funny, and intentionally unpolished. Underneath the swearing and quick banter is a consistent trial philosophy: stop hunting for tricks, understand what the jury is there to do, and build the case from a place that can hold up in the room.
Made for: For trial attorneys and trial consultants who want practical courtroom framing plus frank talk about burnout, fear, and decision fatigue. It best suits listeners who already know the legal terrain and want usable coaching, not theory alone.
What sets it apart: The show joins trial technique with attorney psychology in the same conversation. It treats mindset, time design, credibility, damages, and jury framing as one connected practice rather than separate professional-development lanes.
Sari de la Motte is the host of "Sari Swears" and has been dubbed the "Attorney Whisperer" because of her unique ability to help attorneys communicate their real selves. Tune in every Friday for a new episode of the best fucking podcast on the Internet. I swear. (Like… a LOT. Parental discretion is advised.)
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Sari Swears makes trial strategy legible by tracing courtroom outcomes back to framing, credibility, workload, and the decisions behind them.
Sari Swears turns trial work into a practical study of judgment under pressure. Sari de la Motte moves between solo instruction, guest conversations, and detailed case postmortems, focusing on decisions attorneys can revisit: framing defense arguments, presenting non-economic…
A defense verdict becomes a working session for you, with Sari de la Motte asking what flipped.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical paper-based ranking method helps turn competing priorities into a clearer decision.
Sorry Swears treats decision-making as something to practice, not something to solve by thinking harder. The episode starts with journaling as a way to move a problem out of the mental loop and onto the page, where questions and follow-up questions can expose what actually…
A grounded coaching conversation on whether quitting trial work is burnout talking or a signal to redesign the job.
Quitting trial work is not framed as proof that a trial attorney picked the wrong path. The host and Coach K follow that feeling through burnout, a recent loss, and the hard wait for the next win, then shift toward what may be underneath it: lawyers carrying every task because…
A courtroom lesson in why credibility can carry a damages number farther than calculation.
Non-economic damages land here as a matter of persuasion, not arithmetic. The episode follows a courtroom argument built around a one hundred million dollar ask, made without handing jurors a formula.
A grounded post-trial conversation about framing a defense so jurors understand its real weight.
Chrissy Hagan's defense verdict turns into a practical look at how trial lawyers give shape and weight to a defense case, and how jurors may sense that balance before it is ever stated outright.
Coach K and his co-host ask whether harsh self-criticism helps trial lawyers excel or simply wears them down.
Self-criticism often passes for discipline in trial work, backed by the fear that easing up will invite laziness or missed details. Coach K and his co-host put that belief under pressure: does harsh self-talk provide lasting motivation, or does it simply wear people down?
A practical courtroom model uses the gap between claimed rules and actual conduct to point toward motive.
The episode takes a familiar courtroom problem - proving harmful conduct was more than an innocent oversight - and turns it into a sharper test of the rules people say they follow.
A $26.5 million trucking result becomes a practical study in liability, evidence and trial judgment.
Tom D'Amore's route through accounting and political science to Arthur Anderson opens a focused discussion of trial judgment and case building. Its anchor is a $26.5 million trucking result after a road-rage sequence continued for about 90 miles and ended in a fatal collision.
Trial craft, verdict stories, and lawyer reps.
Queensland estate planning, made concrete.
Host Sari Delamont is joined by Coach Jody Moore and attorney Dave Maxfield to explore a new way to analyze legal cases using the CTFAR self-coaching model.
Sari de la Motte interviews Tom D'Amore, a personal injury attorney who shifted from settling to trying cases.
Stuck decisions get handled on paper.
Sari Swears examines why trial attorneys keep saying they want to quit practicing law, and Coach K says about 60% of the lawyers she coaches have said some version of that line.
["Meg from Team Sorry says non-economic damages at trial should be framed as price versus value, not as a fake formula jurors can calculate.", "Jim is the listener who asked for an actual example after reading Meg's price-versus-value blog, and she answers him directly on the episode.", "Meg uses a grandmother's mixing bowl, a Portland trial, and the names Paul Luvera and John Coletti to show how jurors talk about value.", "A Texas dram shop case with a $100 million ask, three dead cyclists, and a brain injury is her strongest proof that credibility matters more than arithmetic."]
This episode teaches what to cover in voir dire when time is limited, focusing on a key plaintiff voir dire technique from the H2H method.
Sari Swears discusses how people misuse the concept of a jury, arguing its true purpose is to hold bad actors accountable through money in the civil justice system.
Sari Swears and guest Chrissy Hagan discuss a defense verdict in a delayed prostate-cancer diagnosis case from Oakland County, Michigan.
Sari Swears and Coach K argue that trial lawyers often work from fear, self-criticism, and overpreparation, which they say “grind you down to a nubbin” instead of helping clients.
Coach K discusses how trial lawyers often exhibit ADHD-like symptoms and shares his own recent ADHD diagnosis.
Lawyer Nate Cobb discusses his mindset shift and a recent trial settlement on the Sari Swears podcast.
Sari and Coach K discuss the top three mindset issues trial lawyers face and offer tools to overcome them, plus a preview of a new coaching program for 2026.
Shaun Lieser discusses his transformation of trial practice using the H2H method, focusing on personal injury cases in St.
Sari Delamont announces podcast reruns until April for a big surprise, then debriefs Heather Mitchell's $7.5 million medical malpractice jury verdict.