question

@Ceci, Happy to help. The question asks, "The passage most strongly implies that many lawyers believe which one of the following concerning decisions about whether to steal thunder?" You asked why (C) is wrong and (D) is correct. (C) says, "The decision should be based on careful deliberations that anticipate both positive and negative reactions of jurors and opposing lawyers." The problem with (C) is that based on what's in the passage, we have no clue about if lawyers make careful deliberations about whether or not they should "steal thunder." For all we know, lawyers could decide to use the stealing thunder strategy with virtually no planning beforehand. The only thing we know that the lawyers do consider is whether or not their opponents have knowledge about the negative information and will bring it to light in the trial. As a result, (C) is unsupported from the text in the passage, so we can eliminate it. It sounds like you liked (C) because you were bringing in some of your own, outside opinions about what lawyers need to do, but remember, the LSAT is only testing us on information in the text. The only support for this answer choice is contained within the passage, so that's what we have to work with. (D) says, "The decision should depend on how probable it is that the opposition will try to derive an advantage from mentioning the negative information in question." In the passage, the author notes that lots of lawyers do believe that stealing thunder is an effective strategy, but she first qualifies their belief in lines 4 to 6 when she says, "there is no point in revealing a weakness that is unknown to one's opponents or that would not be exploited by them." From this, we can infer that many lawyers probably believe that if their opposition isn't going to mention the negative information they're concerned about, then they should not worry about using the stealing thunder strategy to reveal that information. The textual support of lines 4 to 6 provides great support for (D), which states that the decision of whether to implement the stealing thunder strategy should depend on how likely it is that the opponent will bring up the negative information. Thus, (D) is the correct answer. Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!

D makes sense to me but can you explain why A is wrong? Doesn't it say in the passage that the success of "storming thunder" depends on whether it is possible to frame it in a more positive way?

I also chose D for the same reason

Sorry, meant A. I chose A initially for the same reason but also see why D is correct.