Trial Guides Founder Aaron DeShaw Wins $77.5M Verdict in Amputation Case

Trial Guides is announcing a new customer success story for one of the largest personal injury verdicts of 2023.

Trial Guides Founder Aaron DeShaw has obtained a $77.5 million verdict in a recent amputation case using multiple influences from Trial Guides. His $77.5 million compensatory damages verdict is the largest personal injury verdict in Oregon history, and believed to be the highest single leg amputation verdict in the United States.  As with other customer success stories, we asked Aaron for some insights on how he obtained the verdict that might help other Trial Guides customers.

Read more

Cutting Deep: Keith Mitnik’s Deeper Cuts

Reviewed by Ada K. Wong  Originally published in the April 2022 edition of Trial News, a monthly publication from the Washington State Association...
Read more

Deeper Cuts Book Review

Reviewed by Ezra Smith  Originally published in the Spring 2022 issue of ATLA Docket, a quarterly publication from the Arkansas Trial Lawyer Associ...
Read more

The Domino Theory (Second Edition) by Edward P. Capozzi

Reviewed by Colton Gregory Originally published in the Winter 2022 of ATLA Docket, a quarterly publication from the Arkansas Trial Lawyer Associati...
Read more
10 Tips on Conducting a Winning Cross Examination

10 Tips on Conducting a Winning Cross Examination

What you learned in law school and most CLEs about cross examination won't help you much because much of what is taught is long outdated, ineffective, and potentially dangerous for your case.  In this in-depth dive into cross examination we address historical teachings on cross examination, why they are no longer relevant, and  how new methods will help you succeed in deposition, arbitration and trial. This article is intended to help everyone from law students to 40 year veteran trial lawyers. 
Read more
Becoming a Trial Lawyer: Trying your First Case

Becoming a Trial Lawyer: Trying your First Case

Trial lawyers have no established standards for determining when someone is ready to try a case. As you wrestle with the question of whether you are ready, remember that this awkward situation is not a result of any inadequacy on your part—the profession has let you down.
Read more
New Eric Oliver Trial Strategy Book

New Eric Oliver Trial Strategy Book

Eric Oliver has consulted trial lawyers for 25 years. The verdict: he knows what wins. Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame member, and Past President of the Inner Circle of Advocates, Paul Luvera, notes "Eric Oliver is the Babe Ruth of legal communications field. I buy, read, and put into action every book he writes and every article he publishes."

Trial Guides is proud to release Eric Oliver's newest book, Persuasive Communication: Twenty-five Years of Teaching Lawyers. This book collects the best of Eric's wisdom, laying out usable techniques and strategies that can be utilized in intake, deposition, mediation, trial and anywhere in between. Each topic the book covers is filled with useful nuggets that can be immediately implemented.

Read more
Mauet Trial Techniques Becoming a Trial Lawyer

Teaching Future Trial Lawyers

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.

Read more
Rick Friedman's Winning Trial Strategies

Rick Friedman's Winning Trial Strategies

You've heard about his string of impressive jury verdicts. You've read Rules of the Road and Polarizing the Case. The nation's leading lawyers discuss Rick Friedman's trial methods in CLEs throughout the country. Maybe his strategies have already helped you win. Now it’s time to deepen your understanding of these important trial techniques.
Read more
New Trial Guides Book - Moe Levine on Advocacy

New Trial Guides Book - Moe Levine on Advocacy

Moe Levine is perhaps the most influential source for America's leading trial lawyers. His books and videos have been their secret weapon for decades - well before Trial Guides existed.  This book took Trial Guides founder Aaron DeShaw three years to compile and edit, in cooperation with Levine's children.  The book collects all known material - much of which was unpublished during his life, and will make his ideas accessible to a larger audience of lawyers at a much lower price. Moe Levine on Advocacy is an incredible treasure trove of ideas for your future as a lawyer. Buy your copy today.
Read more
Rick Friedman Obtains $5.86 Million Verdict

Rick Friedman Obtains $5.86 Million Verdict

PEMCO insured the defendant's vehicle with a policy limit of $1.25 million. The plaintiff's losses were significantly greater than this amount. However, the plaintiff did not want to go after the defendant and his parents personally or force them into bankruptcy. Therefore, at mediation Harper demanded the $1.25 million policy limit to settle the claim. PEMCO refused, saying that they would "never pay policy limits on this claim." The defendants asked what would happen to them if an excess verdict were awarded? PEMCO assured them that PEMCO would pay "any amount awarded." PEMCO offered nothing and the case was scheduled for trial.
Read more
New! Reptile - Welcome to the Revolution CLE

New! Reptile - Welcome to the Revolution CLE

Since mid-2006, David Ball and three of America's top trial attorneys; Atlanta's Don Keenan, Kentucky's Gary Johnson, and Wyoming's Jim Fitzgerald; have been conducting a unique series of deep-research jury sessions across the country. The results have surpassed the team's most optimistic hopes, and will revolutionize the legal field's understanding of juror decision-making. They are working on a new book including this content tentatively called Reptile: Welcome to the Plaintiff's Revolution.  Without throwing out the tried-and-true David Ball on Damages methodology or any of a number of other effective approaches, the new methods transform even the worst of jurors into your allies. The playing field remains as steeply tilted as ever; but now the tilt is in our favor.

The results of the 2006-08 research mean that the long courtroom nightmare of "tort-reform" is finally ending. If you think this is an exaggeration, you have not yet learned the new approach.

Read more
Trial Consultants vote Eric Oliver’s book #1

Trial Consultants vote Eric Oliver’s book #1

The American Society of Trial Consultants recently held a poll of their members on the subject of case themes. The poll asked: “What written work—books or articles—do you most often recommend to your trial lawyer clients to better aid them in constructing and delivering a case theme?”

The one source which professional counseling attorneys across the country listed more than any other, on the subject of persuasive themes and case delivery, was Facts Can't Speak for Themselves, by Eric Oliver.

Read more