Advanced Premises Liability: A Guide Through Trial (eBook)

Michael Neff

Format: eBook
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Over the past several decades, trial attorney Michael Neff has been consistently winning six-, seven-, and eight-figure outcomes in premises liability cases. In Advanced Premises Liability: A Guide through Trial, Neff uses detailed examples from past cases to demonstrate the nuts and bolts of how to successfully navigate and try long and complex cases. Neff shares transcripts, letters, and other materials from different stages of trial and case preparation to provide lessons on how to prepare, try, and win a premises liability case.

Neff deeply expands upon the issues discussed in his first book, Premises Liability: A Guide to Success, and offers numerous lessons on the following and more:

  • Obtaining documents and getting them into evidence
  • Spoliation letters leading to orders
  • The importance of presenting key evidence through the defendant’s documents and agents, and how to create opportunities to do so
  • Cross-examining experts (with a focus on a negligent security or negligent hiring case)
  • Settling your case (with excerpts from demand letters and a fraudu­lent transfer letter)
  • Voir dire in a premises liability case
  • Opening statement in a premises liability case (with trial excerpts)
  • Cross-examining the corporate representative at trial (with trial ex­cerpts)
  • Direct examination of a plaintiff’s liability expert (in a slip and fall case)
  • Direct examination of the treating doctor (in a CRPS case)
  • Direct examination of a life-care planner (in a CRPS case)
  • Closing argument (putting together the evidence and tapping into the themes that justify a verdict for your client)
  • Jury instructions and how certain charges set up arguments during closing

Neff shares his process for obtaining fair verdicts and meaningful settlements through effective detail management, case analysis, and strategy so you can best build and execute your case. He also discusses ways to manage yourself and your thoughts during trial and be more in tune with your audience’s emotions so you can put on the best case possible.

Through this book, Neff seeks to provide guidance on how to pound the defense during litigation and trial. By looking at how he has done things in cases that ultimately resolved with favor­able results, he offers examples and strategies that you can develop into your own equally successful approach. As Neff puts it, “We have to learn how to battle at the highest level and make the most of the weapons we have. Otherwise, we are […] bumbling Don Quixotes and may be more likely to fight windmills than slay dragons.”

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Paperback: 316 pages; 1st edition (2021); ISBN: 978-1-951962-14-2
Publisher: Trial Guides, LLC
Acknowledgements
Publisher’s Note
Foreword
Introduction
About the Cases in This Book
  1.  Obtaining and Admitting Documents into Evidence
  2. Spoliation Letters and Spoliation Orders
  3. Cross-Examining Defense Experts During Deposition
  4. Settling Before Trial
  5. Voir Dire
  6. Opening Statement
  7. Cross-Examination of a Corporate Representative
  8. Direct Examination of a Liability Expert
  9. Direct Examination of a Treating Doctor
  10. Direct Examination of a Life Care Planner
  11. Jury Charges
  12. Closing Argument
Conclusion
Afterword
About the Author

What Legal Leaders Are Saying

“Michael Neff provides a walk through of premises liability cases that is valuable to anyone litigating in this area. He covers the waterfront for these cases with everything from strategy, dealing with discovery problems and spoilation, preparing and taking depositions of defendant 30(b)(6) depositions, the cross-examination of defense experts, fraudulent transfers during litigation, settlement, and details of trial and presenting to jurors. This is a treasure trove of information for anyone litigating a premises liability case. I highly recommend it.”

— Phillip Miller, author of Advanced Depositions Strategy and Practice and Focus Groups: Hitting the Bullseye

“Neff has done it again. As a trial lawyer and a trial consultant, it is helpful to look at transcripts to study what worked and why, and what could possibly be improved next time. Neff’s inclusion of transcripts from some of his largest verdicts are opportunities to learn how to help our clients get just and fair results in meaningful cases. Do yourself a favor, get Neff’s book.”

— Greg Cusimano, trial lawyer and consultant, coauthor of Winning Case Preparation and Commanding the Courtroom, recipient of AAJ’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Leonard M. Ring Champion of Justice Award

“Michael’s second book takes us to the next level in premises liability litigation. He identifies and shows us how to get the case critical documents/ESI, which is the key to persuading a jury. By proving the case through the defendant’s own records, defense arguments and their hired gun experts are neutralized. Kudos to Michael for taking us straight to the heart of what we need.”

— Mark Kosieradzki, author of 30(b)(6): Deposing Corporations, Organizations, and the Government (2nd edition)

“Mr. Neff’s book adds to the collective knowledge of trial lawyers who represent victims of crime and negligence. By weaving real-world cases into the outline of a trial, Neff gives concrete examples of how to find, admit, and use evidence—as well as the defendant’s own policies and admissions. The case studies are helpful because the practitioner can relate to the cases and mentally insert their own case and develop lines of attack based on what Neff has used. I really liked his point on something lawyers often forget: ask the witness (expert or other) what the jury would want to ask. This is a basic tenet that is easily overlooked in the tunnel vision that be¬comes many trials. The excellent treatment of voir dire and explanation of presenting damages in catastrophic cases enhances the value of this book.”

— John Leighton, president of the National Crime Victims’ Bar Association, chair¬man of the American Association for Justice Inadequate Security Litigation Group, and author of Litigating Premises Security Cases

“As a long-time advocate for crime victims, I highly recommend Mike Neff’s book, Advanced Premises Liability. Premises liability case are difficult enough, but representing crime victims, a special calling of Mike’s, carries with it its own perils and challenges. I’m thrilled that Mike has chosen to feature two extraordinary cases in his new book in which he rep¬resented crime victims and their families in highly creative, cutting-edge cases against Six Flags Theme Parks and Monitronics Alarm Systems. Mike not only tried these cases to remarkable verdicts but has fought appeals by both defendants stung by the measure of justice he brought his clients. The Six Flags path to justice took ten years alone. Mike’s book is much more than a superb “how to;” it’s inspirational.”

— Peter S. Everett, selected for Best Lawyers in America, 1999–present and as a 2016 & 2018 Lawyer of the Year for Washington DC in Plaintiff’s Personal Injury Litigation, and former co-chair of the AAJ Inadequate Security Litigation Group

“Michael Neff has raised the bar on trying premises liability cases. This is a must-read and follow for any lawyer trying these cases and selecting juries.”

— Saul Gruber, trial lawyer and consultant, host of “The Jury Thinks What?” podcast, and past chair of the AAJ Nursing Home Litigation Group