Trial Guides is approaching its 20th anniversary as a legal publisher. We recently asked Trial Guides Founder Aaron DeShaw for his thoughts on some of the products most influential on his career as a trial lawyer. Here are his thoughts on the history and influence of Keith Mitnik's Don't Eat the Bruises.
"Several of our best selling books were recommended to me by Trial Guides authors. Keith Mitnik was first recommended to us by trial great Rick Friedman. When Rick tells us 'this guy is really into studying trial strategy' we know to take the lawyer seriously. The term 'trial nerd' may have even been used. Rick told me that Keith was one of those lawyers who still reads transcripts of successful cases and then figures out what the lawyer is doing to win.
Then I found out that Keith is the chief trial strategist for Morgan & Morgan's lawyers, and creates ideas to test in the trenches with the firm's litigators. It was around this same time that I had heard rumors that Morgan & Morgan had filed a huge amount of lawsuits in one day in response to lowball offers from a large auto insurer, and that the experience had lead to them implementing a mandatory requirement for each lawyer to try at least three cases every year. (I later learned that taking this step had more than doubled the values of all of the firm's cases.)
The book's title and cover may be unexpected for a litigation book, and Keith's methods are just as original. In reading the manuscript, it became clear to me the brilliance of Keith's trial methods. Don't Eat the Bruises is filled with practical ideas that work in any jurisdiction, and with nearly any juror, because they address concepts from personal injury cases that apply to universal human experiences. My favorite of these is his idea of using a pie eating contest to discuss bias with prospective jurors during voir dire. I've used Keith's analogy in every trial since I read the book, and it connects with every type of juror - particularly conservatives. It helps jurors who don't like tort cases to self identify as being the wrong juror for a personal injury case. The book has been very helpful to me in my career as a trial lawyer.
I also really enjoy Keith's reading of the audiobook. Before each trial I try to take the time to listen to David Ball on Damages audiobook and/or Don't Eat the Bruises audiobook. Re-listening to these two important books shortly before each trial helps me take the facts of each case and apply them to the concepts and methods discussed so that I can create the most effective voir dire and opening.