New Trial Tech from David Ball, Don Keenan, Jim Fitzgerald and Gary Johnson
With his Damages book, David Ball gave plaintiff’s attorneys a structured way to talk about damages and to present a case from opening statements throughout the trial. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say it revolutionized the courtroom for many plaintiff’s attorneys.
Following on the heels of that, Rick Friedman and Patrick Malone gave us Rules of the Road, a systematic way to approach liability. I liked Rules of the Road because it spelled out a number of things that I had been doing intuitively, but it gave a structured way to repeat and handle cases.
Well, there’s a new book coming out this weekend: REPTILE: The 2009 Manual of The Plaintiff's Revolution. If you click on the link, there’s a review from Lawyer’s USA in pdf format.
They did a ton of research and based on neuro psychology or cognitive psychology, have found a way to turn tort reform on it’s ear. A lot of people do not want to give money to ‘greedy plaintiff’s’ and ‘jackpot justice’, but if you show them community standards and how the defendants violate community standards, and how that affects the juror and their family, they will make the defendants pay.
Interestingly enough, people that were strongly against civil litigation and big advocates of ‘tort reform’ would still give solid verdicts when using this system.
A lot of research has been done in the past 10–15 years on social sciences, how people think and how people actually make decisions. The research in this book is based on deep in the id, the reptilian response to situations, which the ‘fight or flight’ syndrome is based on.
The book is coming out this week and I’ll be going to a seminar in Atlanta on it Friday and Saturday put on by Don Keenan and David Ball. I’m excited and looking forward to seeing what they’ve come up with. It meshes with everything I’ve read on NLP, neuro psychology and cognitive psychology. So it should be good…..Plus, it’s hard to argue with the track record of the authors.
Here is information for the Atlanta Seminar on May 8–9, although it might be too late to sign up. If you miss it, David Ball is giving the seminar in Dallas on June 12, 13.
If you just want the book, you can get it from their website, from Don Keenan’s publishing company, or from Barnes and Noble. It’s not on Amazon yet or Trial Guides, yet.
I’ll report back after the seminar. A lot of it is plaintiff’s attorneys only, so I might not be able to give all of the scoop, but enough to give some pointers (with the author’s permission) and enough to let everyone know whether it’s worthwhile.
