A lot of the best trial tips come from the bench. After all, they have a front-row seat to plenty of courtroom action.

Yesterday two federal jurists in California—Senior U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia of the Southern District and U.S. District Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District—gave some useful pointers on trial practice as part of a panel discussion at the fifth annual Class Action Law Forum at the University of San Diego School of Law. Alas, the Litigation Daily wasn’t able to make the trip to sunny San Diego (which wasn’t so sunny yesterday, anyway), but we did get a virtual press pass. Here are the key takeaways from the judges’ remarks.