News

Trial Guides congratulates lawyer and long time Trial Guides author Rick Friedman of Friedman Rubin for obtaining a $72,000,000 verdict against Monsanto today in Seattle.

For the past few years Rick has been trying cases against Monsanto for injuries caused by Monsanto's polychlorinated biphenyls "PCB" products.  This verdict follows prior verdicts of $275 million, $185 million, $82 million and $62 million.

Trial Guides author Rick Friedman has obtained a $185,000,000 trial verdict against Monsanto in PCB litigation.

A Friedman Rubin, PLLP trial team led by Rick Friedman, Henry Jones, and Sean Gamble obtained a $185 Million Dollar verdict today in the case of Erickson et. al. v. Monsanto. The case involved three public school teachers who sued Monsanto and its corporate successors for poisoning teachers, students and parents who attended Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington between 2011 and 2016. The three teachers were the first plaintiffs to reach trial against Monsanto from a group of over 200 teachers, students and parents exposed to leaking PCB ballasts in fluorescent light fixtures at the school. The verdict follows years of hard-fought litigation between Monsanto, now owned by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, and a group of parents, students and teachers who would just not give up in their quest for justice.

The way to play it safe in law school was to raise and explain every possible issue. If five arguments supported a particular result, you had better discuss them all. Civil and criminal classes support this type of issue spotting, and some law firms believe this works in litigation. But, this law school training works against you at trial.

In Hidalgo County, Texas, attorneys Michael Cowen and Malorie Peacock of Cowen Rodriguez and Peacock obtained a just multimillion-dollar verdict for the widow of a man who died during a trench collapse. Read more about how they obtained the verdict.

Trial Guides is proud to announce Rick Friedman's Take Back the Courtroom IV Continuing Legal Education Live Event.

This event features an all star group of the nation's leading trial lawyers.  Primary speakers include Rick Friedman, Randi McGinn and Roger Dodd.  Guest speakers include Nick Rowley, Keith Mitnik and trial consultant Sari de la Motte.

Last week, Trial Guides author Rick Friedman obtained a $21.5 million verdict in a difficult traumatic brain injury case. We wanted to share how Rick obtained the outcome despite extremely challenging facts.

Rick’s client was a fifty-seven-year old self-made multimillionaire on a cruise with Holland America Lines. He, his wife, and his daughter were scheduled for an eight-month around-the-world cruise. One day on the ship while he was walking through a doorway, the door closed suddenly and struck him in the head.

Twice in the last four years, Trial Guides has convinced Rick Friedman to present a two-day seminar. Titled "Take Back the Courtroom," these seminars have helped a select group of plaintiffs’ lawyers take their trial skills to the next level.

Now, Trial Guides is proud to announce the third "Take Back the Courtroom" seminar, in Miami, Florida, on February 22–23, 2013.

The 2013 Trial Guides Litigation Quote Calendar is now available.  

This daily calendar is the result of painstaking work by the Trial Guides staff to bring you the very best advice from every product we carry. We’ve searched every book and video in the Trial Guides library for the best advice from today’s leading experts on litigation, such as Gerry Spence, David Ball, Rick Friedman, and more.

Take Back the Courtroom II - Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation.

You asked for it and we delivered. Join Trial Guides for an exclusive 2-day live CLE on February 25-26, 2011 featuring trial superstar Rick Friedman. You know him from his best selling books Rules of the Road and Polarizing the Case. Rick has built his career by working his way up from a one person office in remote Alaska to obtaining significant jury verdicts for people in insurance bad faith, personal injury, traumatic brain injury, medical malpractice, product liability, and wrongful death cases.  This is not a seminar to be missed!

Trial Guides is proud to announce a new, fully revised and expanded version of its best selling book Rules of the Road by Rick Friedman and Patrick Malone.

This best selling text on proving liability has helped lawyers throughout the country win six, seven, and eight figure verdicts. 

In the five years since its release, we've learned invaluable information on the benefits and difficulties of using Rules of the Road in trial. The result is an improved methodology for trying your cases.

Trial Guides #1 book Rules of the Road is now available in a revised and expanded Second Edition.  

Authors Rick Friedman and Patrick Malone significantly revised this groundbreaking work. In addition to revisions throughout the book clarifying concepts in the first edition, Friedman and Malone added six new chapters and three appendices. They cover the differences between rules and principles, how to troubleshoot your rules, and how to fit Rules of the Road™ techniques into your case themes.

The International Brian Injury Association recently released an article by brain injury attorney Dorothy Clay Sims, entitled "An Autopsy on the Fake Bad Scale."

Consider reading the article if you handle any personal injury cases in which your client may have suffered from brain or psychological injuries. In the article, the authors discuss multiple problems with the Fake Bad Scale (FBS, also known as Symptom Validity Scale), a controversial test for measuring malingering.

If you are a professor of trial advocacy, you train the trial lawyers of the future. While many books purport to educate young trial lawyers on trial procedure and trial techniques, few guide law students and new lawyers through the common behavioral and psychological mistakes that can undermine a promising career.

With Becoming a Trial Lawyer, author Rick Friedman has written a book that does both. Friedman, a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, guides future lawyers on their career path, weighing in on the pros and cons of being a trial lawyer, and explaining how to lead a healthy, balanced life in a field where career largely dominates. In addition, the book is filled with tips from Friedman's trial career.

Review of "Becoming a Trial Lawyer" by Howard Nations in AAJ's Trial Magazine:

Trial attorney Rick Friedman’s latest book, On Becoming a Trial Lawyer, offers useful advice to those who wish to pursue success as a trial lawyer without forfeiting a fulfilling life as a family member, friend, and member of society. The book has value for the prospective lawyer as well as the trial attorney who wants to better understand and cope with increased professional and personal pressures.

Book Review: Polarizing the Case is a book for trial lawyers written by Richard Friedman, one of the most successful trial lawyers in the United States. But anyone who has ever been a victim of an insurance company’s tactics designed to deny or underpay a legitimate claim might also find it interesting.

I have started going to more seminars, reading more books, watching more video—trying to get beyond "the law" and generic trial techniques, and focusing specifically on how to win plaintiffs’ personal injury trials. It soon became apparent that a new publishing company predominates this niche, publishing and distributing some of today’s most important plaintiffs’ trial materials—Trial Guides.

After over three years of work, Trial Guides is proud to announce the release of Moe Levine on Advocacy, the most comprehensive book ever released on Levine's lectures, trial transcripts and articles.

Moe Levine practiced in New York in the 1940s to early 1970s, trying over 2000 civil trials.  He was one of the first members of the Inner Circle of Advocates, and was close friends with Inner Circle founder Richard Grand.  He helped create the concept of "qualitative damages" while helping Grand re-frame one of his cases by taking a concept from the Bible and using it as a way to describe the client's loss. (The case is discussed in the book.)

An investigative report published in the New York Times entitled "Exams of Injured Workers Fuels Mutual Mistrust" demonstrates the strong bias of IME doctors working for insurance companies. It could provide excellent ideas for cross-examination of an insurance doctor in your next trial.

In the NY Times article, a New York IME doctor admits, "If you did a truly pure report, you'd be out on your ears and the insurers wouldn't pay for it. You have to give them what they want... That's the game, baby."

Trial Guides is proud to announce the launch of the "Rules of the Road Online Forum" only available to purchasers of Rick Friedman and Patrick Malone's book Rules of the Road.

Rules of the Road, has become the best selling book for plaintiff lawyers on proving liability in personal injury cases and insurance bad faith cases. The forum provides a moderated list server for plaintiff lawyers who want to discuss how to best use Rules of the Road in their cases.

In his book Polarizing the Case, Rick Friedman teaches us not to fear allegations or insinuations that our 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."

Here is what one young lawyer did with his copy of Polarizing the Case:

Trial Guides is now distributing "Closing Statements in Child Injury and Child Wrongful Death Cases Volume 2."

This book is a “must have” for any lawyer representing injured children. This book is a compilation of closing statements in child injury and wrongful death cases by 15 of the nation's best personal injury lawyers. Each lawyer is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, an organization comprised of the 100 best plaintiff trial lawyers in the United States. Most of the closing statements in this book came from cases in which the jury returned verdicts in excess of $1,000,000. The following trial lawyers who contributed to this text:

Rick Friedman is widely respected as one of the top trial lawyers in the country. He is the author of two best selling legal books; Rules of the Road (Trial Guides, 2006), and Polarizing the Case (Trial Guides, 2007). Now, for the first time, Rick Friedman will present an intensive two day seminar revealing the secrets of his trial verdicts.

The American Association for Justice (AAJ) has named the Top 10 Worst Insurance Companies in America.  In doing so, it cites Trial Guides' book From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves and articles arising from publicity around that book as the basis for naming Allstate the #1 worst insurer in America.

The 29 page report has a section for each of the ten worst insurers.  The section on Allstate notes at footnote 11 "There is no better analysis of [Allstate's] McKinsey documents than the book, 'From Good Hands’ to Boxing Gloves,' by David Berardinelli, Michael Freeman, and Aaron DeShaw.  Many of AAJ's citations to articles about Allstate's institutional "Deny, Delay, Defend" policy cite the book as the authoritative source on Allstate's policies and procedures as well as the way they have impacted the rest of the insurance industry.  These include the feature articles by BusinessWeek, Money magazine, CNN and others.

Rules of the Road is the nation's best selling book on proving liability. Lawyers regularly let us know how well it works. The following is one customer success story we recently received:

"If you read no other book, Rick Friedman's Rules of the Road, is mandatory reading. I would suggest you read it prior to conducting discovery.

With Rules of the Road™, Rick Friedman (with co-author Patrick Malone) changed the way thousands of plaintiff's lawyers try their cases. In the process, he established himself as one of the nation's leading tacticians in the battle for civil justice.

With Polarizing the Case, Friedman teaches us not to fear allegations or insinuations that our client is malingering or exaggerating injuries. Instead he provides, in his own words, "a guidebook for wrapping the malingering defense around the defense lawyer's neck and strangling him with it."

Trial Guides, in cooperation with NITA, brings you Winning Jury Trials: Trial Tactics and Sponsorship Strategy by Robert Klonoff & Paul Colby.

Winning Jury Trials covers a broad spectrum of issues likely to confront the advocate every day, and provides a "default position" on how to resolve most tactical issues arising at trial. Winning Jury Trials covers such topics as:

Trial Guides is proud to release an audiobook of its best selling legal text - Rules of the Road.  The book is the best selling book for lawyers on proving liability.  

Rules of the Road co-authors, Rick Friedman and Patrick Malone, entered a recording studio with Trial Guides audio engineer Josh Derry to record the audiobook over four days.  The audiobook CD set is an unabridged reading of the book.

We recently received the following lawyer success story using Rules of the Road:

"I recently tried a bad faith case here in Kentucky that was supposed to be a very conservative jurisdiction. The judge, as well as everyone else, warned me not to turn down the offer of $300,000. We did, and the verdict was $755,000 plus $195,000 to be added for attorneys fees. Not a big verdict for California, but very respectable for here.

Trial Guides is proud to announce the release of the new Rick Friedman video Winning Trial Strategies: Framing Issues and Attitudes for Trial.

In this video, Rick Friedman, one of America's leading trial lawyers, provides you with the keys to winning trials in a time of overwhelming jury bias. First, he helps you consider your theme and strategy for trial using his Rules of the Road technique, and teaches you how to use it from the pleading through discovery and trial. Next, he moves to defeating the malingering defense...

More reviews are coming in for Trial Guides new book Rules of the Road by Rick Friedman and Patrick Malone.

“Friedman and Malone have given trial lawyers a road map to success.  It make the reader re-evaluate how a case should be prepared and triad, and emphasizes how the trial begins in discovery.  The book helps make complete lawyers even better and, believe me, these authors are complete lawyers.”

Stuart Z. Grossman - named Florida Trial Lawyer of the Year by the American Board of Trial Advocates, and member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers

Trial Guides has received reviews from two of the Inner Circle of Advocates for the new book by Rick Friedman and Patrick Malone entitled Rules of the Road.

“Two preeminent trial lawyers share their powerful insights and practical techniques in a lively and rewarding guide through case analysis, discovery and trial.  This essential source is packed with valuable advice and lucid examples certain to help win the difficult liability case.”

Michael Koskoff – Member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, and listed as one of The Best Lawyers in America

Buy your copy of Rules of the Road today.

Nationally prominent bad faith trial lawyer Rick Friedman has agreed to a multi-book, video, and audio CD series for personal injury and bad faith lawyers. 

Rick Friedman has been called the insurance industries' worst nightmare. His successful career has been distinguished by multi-million dollar verdicts and precedent-setting case law. Among many of his landmark cases are the $152 million awarded to a State Farm agent in Bellott v. State Farm, $84 million awarded to a disabled doctor in Ceimo v. Paul Revere, and $16.5 million awarded to a disabled worker in Ace v. Aetna Life Insurance Company. His verdicts to date total over $300 million. Friedman is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, an invitation-only group that limits its membership to 100 of the leading trial lawyers in the country.