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Rick Friedman
has authored three books for Trial Lawyers:
BOOK
#1: RULES OF THE ROAD:
A Plaintiff's Lawyers Guide to Proving Liability
Has this ever
happened to you? You are an attorney for the underdog,
representing someone hurt by the indifference, carelessness
or greed of a large institution. You are on the right side
of the case. Morally and legally, you deserve to win. You
believe you are scoring points with the judge and jury. The
other side’s arguments are weak and disorganized. And
then you lose. How did that
happen? We think we have
some answers, and some ways to keep it from happening again. The defense wields
three weapons to defeat plaintiffs’ cases that should be
won:
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Complexity,
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Confusion, and
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Ambiguity.
Complexity,
confusion and ambiguity are insidious enemies.
They creep up when you are not looking. They rarely attack
head-on. They are particularly abundant and pernicious in
complex cases such as insurance bad faith or medical
malpractice. This is because both the facts and the jury
instructions in these cases are often complex, confusing and
ambiguous. But these enemies appear in simple cases too.
Sometimes,
complexity, confusion and ambiguity are inherent
in the case; other times, they proliferate due to a
conscious defense strategy of confounding the jury and judge
with endless, immaterial detail. In either event, you must
defeat complexity, confusion and ambiguity, or they will
defeat you.
In this book, we
set out a technique to neutralize these three defense allies
and bring clarity and focus to any case. It has helped us
win worthy cases that otherwise might have been lost.
We wrote this book
for our fellow attorneys who represent consumers, patients,
and other real people in lawsuits to redress injustice and
injury. Between us, we have more than four decades of
experience preparing and trying cases. We have tasted the
ashes of unfair defeat. We have also enjoyed great
successes. We love our profession, and we chafe at the
untruths peddled regularly these days by the rich and the
powerful who don’t like it when we hold them accountable in
a court of law. Every time “our side” loses, the other side
harrumphs that another frivolous lawsuit has flamed out.
Most of the time, we think the opposite is true: that
frivolous defenses have triumphed because of complexity,
confusion and ambiguity.
Ultimately, this
book is about how to breathe life into ambiguous legal
standards and create an indisputable standard for everyone —
judges, juries and defendants — to see. The standard must
be as clear as crossing a double yellow line on a highway.
The Rules
of the Road technique can help focus your own thoughts and
efforts, so that you can focus the thoughts and efforts of
the judge and jury. It can help you work more productively
and effectively — but you still have to do the hard work.
BOOK
#2: POLARIZING THE CASE:
Exposing and
Defeating the Malingering Myth
In his second book, Polarizing
the Case, Rick Friedman teaches trial lawyers not to fear
allegations or insinuations that their client is malingering
or exaggerating injuries. Instead he provides, in his
own words, "a guidebook for wrapping the malingering defense
around the neck of the defense lawyer and strangling him
with it."
Introduction
I began practicing law in 1979,
it was rare for defense lawyers to accuse a plaintiff of
malingering. Maybe they knew jurors would not be receptive
to such arguments, absent definitive proof. Perhaps jurors
have always been receptive, but defense lawyers back then
felt constrained by their role as officers of the court, or
by basic human decency. Whatever the reason, they usually
refrained from attacking people as liars and cheats when
they knew it wasn’t true.
I enjoy speculating about such
things, but don’t pretend to know what accounts for the
change. What I do know is that the malingering defense seems
to crop up everywhere now. In personal injury cases, large
and small, in medical malpractice, even contract cases, the
defense will frequently find a way to imply, insinuate, or
outright accuse the plaintiff of being a liar, a cheat, and
a fraud.
Most plaintiff lawyers have had
the unfortunate experience of watching a strong case
defeated by preposterous allegations of malingering. We may
chalk up the verdict to a random bad jury or a biased judge.
But then it happens again. And again. Not just to us, but to
our professional friends and associates.
These tactics can be seen most
clearly in what the insurance industry has labeled “Minor
Impact Soft-Tissue” (MIST) cases. About fifteen years back,
the industry made a decision to plug into public suspicions
about plaintiffs and aggressively litigate these cases. The
result has been to create the conventional wisdom in the
plaintiff ’s bar that these low impact cases cannot be won.
Of course, these tactics are not
limited to MIST cases; they crop up everywhere, and it is
often difficult to know how to deal with them.
This book has a modest goal: to
quickly and efficiently provide a blueprint for defeating
the malingering defense. Actually, it is a guidebook for
wrapping the malingering defense around the neck of the
defense lawyer and strangling him with it.
Part I progresses through the
various stages of preparing and trying a case, showing how
to polarize and defeat the malingering defense. I make no
effort to comprehensively cover each stage. I am simplistic
for the sake of clarity. Each chapter tries to explain what
must be accomplished at that stage to defeat the malingering
defense at trial. The chapter on written discovery, for
example, makes no attempt to outline all written discovery
you should propound in a particular case.
Part II shows polarizing
principles in action. This part uses real trial transcripts
to show the polarizing process from start to finish.
The insurance industry has done
a spectacular job of convincing the public—our jury
pool—that people who make injury claims are not hurt and are
exaggerating for monetary gain. It’s not generally true, but
it is powerful because it can be true—even if infrequently.
This book is not for cheaters. None of us want to help
anyone get away with what amounts to larceny. This book is
designed to help you protect the innocent victims of this
widespread character-assassination.
The morally bankrupt strategy of
accusing honest victims of being liars, cheats, and frauds
has dominated American courtrooms for too long. I hope this
book will help you get your clients the justice they
deserve.
BOOK
#3:
RICK FRIEDMAN On
Becoming a TRIAL LAWYER
In his third book,
Becoming a Trial Lawyer, Rick Friedman
addresses the inner barriers that prevent many
trial lawyers from reaching their full
potential. Combining practical advice with
inspirational insights, he guides you on the
journey every trial lawyer must take, from the
struggle to gain trial experience to the search
for happiness in a career fraught with conflict
and frustration. While the book does
discuss how Rick went from being a solo lawyer
with no legal experience in a small town in
Alaska, to one of the most acclaimed trial
lawyers today, the book isn't an autobiography.
It's about the steps you can take to
develop your full potential as a trial
lawyer.
To
order
Rules of the Road,
Polarizing the Case or Becoming a Trial Lawyer,
click here. |