LEGAL SECRETS: HOW TO HIRE A LAWYER; HOW TO GIVE A GOOD DEPOSITION AND TESTIFY WELL IN COURT

So you're watching the daily O.J.-o-rama on TV, and it occurs to you: ''Hey, that could be me! And I could find myself up the creek without a Cochran! What would I do?'' Here are two answers: LEGAL SECRETS: HOW TO HIRE A LAWYER (1994, Barbara J. Swist Enterprises, 714-854-5040, $24.95) and HOW TO GIVE A GOOD DEPOSITION AND TESTIFY WELL IN COURT (1994, Winning Case Productions, 800-383-8811, $19.95). In the 22-minute Legal Secrets, California consumer rights advocate Barbara Swist interviews attorney Mac Jacobs about whether he should handle her hypothetical real estate fraud case. ''Where did you go to school?'' chirps Ms. Swist. ''Do you carry malpractice insurance?'' And so on, through more than a dozen questions that we are advised to ask when seeking legal counsel. In How to Give a Good Deposition, legal author-consultant Noelle C. Nelson leads three prototypical litigants through the paces of giving convincing legal testimony, focusing on physical appearance, vocal patterns, emotional control, and story structure. ''When you feel yourself getting too emotional,'' she advises ''Barbara'' on her medical malpractice deposition, ''take a deep breath, stop talking, avert your eyes, and then turn back to the questioner.'' It's all sensible advice, sensibly delivered. With both tapes, slick production values run a distant second to quality instruction. And as a type of information sharing uniquely suited to video, both are as good as it gets. A