the trial lawyer: what it takes to win

Are lawyers too determined to win at all costs?

Lawyers are going beyond their brief. Too often, lawyers in courtrooms are determined to win at all costs – and that is dangerous for the rest of us.

Who are the Best Lawyers in America?

David is recognized in Best Lawyers in America in three trial specialties: Business Litigation, Civil Litigation, and White Collar Defense. He has been named to the National Law Journal's annual list of the nation's best civil trial lawyers and its "Who's Who in White Collar Defense".

Why do lawyers file nearly identical complaints in rapid succession?

The Wall Street Journal reports that “the system makes it easy for lawyers to file nearly identical complaints in rapid succession, with just a few paragraphs changed about each plaintiff, giving defendants little to go on to gauge the legitimacy of any given case.

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The Trial Lawyer: What It Takes to Win, Second Edition

Learn how Joe Jamail won a $10.5 billion verdict in Pennzoil v. Texaco - and how you can use these trial tactics to your advantage!

The Trial Lawyer: What It Takes to Win, Second Edition

Learn how Joe Jamail won a $10.5 billion verdict in Pennzoil v. Texaco - and how you can use these trial tactics to your advantage!

How to make a promise to the jury?

You are the one who made promises to the jury. They look to you to deliver, no one else. Besides, you have waited a long time for this opportunity, so take advantage of it. Argue your case in the words the jury will read in the charge. Tell them, without apology, how much you want and why.

How many times out of 10 do you strike a jury?

Nine times out of 10, you will have saved a peremptory strike. Now comes the difficult, almost mystical process of striking jurors. Given the huge stakes involved, the judge tells you to take 15 minutes. You plead and get 20, grab an empty jury room, and begin talking with the trial team about each panelist.

What to say when a jury retires?

When the jury retires, you want your clients to be able to say, “No matter how this comes out, I know you did everything you could for my case.” More important, you want it to be true. Nonetheless, if you lose, there is little comfort in the compliment or consolation because you didn’t make the facts. We write our history from our last verdict forward. The object of the exercise is to win.

Why did the judge reject the defense counsel's sixth motion for continuance?

The judge rejects defense counsel’s sixth motion for continuance because America does not celebrate St. Swithin’s day. Finally, the panel shuffles silently into the courtroom. It is an awkward moment as you rise to address them, like a mass blind date.

What did the Supreme Court write in 1979?

In 1979, the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court wrote an opinion affirming not only a verdict but our tradition of zealous advocacy as well. The issue was a particularly vitriolic closing argument in a personal injury case, including the assertion that the plaintiff drove by a “thousand [legitimate] doctors between the Astrodome and Spring Branch,” clear across town, to get to the quack who testified. Justice Pope wrote, “Hyperbole has long been one of the figurative techniques of oral advocacy. Such arguments are part of our legal heritage and language. . . . In The Tempest, Shakespeare wrote ‘Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground’; … in Hamlet, ‘To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.'”