In this presentation, Faraj delves into advanced strategies for civil trial practice, offering insights into effective case preparation, courtroom tactics, and persuasive advocacy. This session is designed to enhance the skills of legal professionals aiming to excel in civil litigation.

Haytham Faraj

TLU Live Vegas 2024 REPLAY - Strategic Concepts in Civil Trial Practice

Bobby Taghavi

Destroying Defense Experts on Cross

Ben B. Rubinowitz

Employment Master Class

David DeRubertis

Advanced Deposition Strategy and Tactics

Phillip Miller

Edward Ciarimboli

Voir Dire Workshop

Randall Sorrels

Jury Selection

Defense Decoded: Top Defense Lawyers Tactics Revealed

Michael Alder

Craig Hartsuyker

Lucy Williams-Abrego

Creating and Using Visuals in Depositions and Trials to Bulletproof Your Case

A Deep Dive on the FedEx Ground Video Event Data Recorder (VEDR) and Its Impact on Your Case

Handling and Trying Your First Trucking Case

Corey Suda

The Best of Joe Fried: Damages and Money

Joe Fried

Winning Strategies for Motorcycle Injury Cases Caused by Roadway Defects

Jason Waechter

Connecting the dots of TBI in Truck Crashes

Ryan Skiver

The Mental Game for Trial – Performing Under Pressure

Przemek	Lubecki

War on Truth: Trial and Closing Argument in Post-Truth Times

Eric Oliver

Scott Frost

Maximizing Damages

Andrew Robb

Integrating Focus Groups & Big Data Insights into Case Strategy

Jessica Brylo

Work on Designing A Winning Frame for Your Premises Liability Case

Michael Karp

Robert Welcenbach

Voir Dire - Wrongful Death

Dirk Vandever

Voir Dire - Traumatic Brain Injury

25 Game-Changing Strategies

Unspoken Assumptions and Impaired Attention: Meet the Challenge of Post-Truth Decider Jurors

TLU Cross Examination

Nick Wooldridge

TLU Voir Dire

Giorgio Panagos

TBI Workshop

Maxey Scherr

Dark Arts 1

David Clark

Tying Bad Conduct to Big Damages

Kenneth Berger

TLU Presentation Skills

The Motorcycle Case Workshop

Cross Examination

Velvet Killer Cross-Examination

Randi McGinn

Making Non-Economic Damages Make Cents Millions

Sari De La Motte

Christy Crowe Childers

TBI Master Class

Nick Rowley

Voir Dire Focused On Wrongful Death & TBI

Toxic Speed Trial

Master Non-Economic Damages at Trial

Three Essential Presentation Skills to Reach Today's Challenged — and Challenging — Jurors

Master the Art of Voir Dire with Jury Consultant Jessica Brylo

Final Argument

Voir Dire in Action: Live Coaching from Jury Consultant Jessica Brylo with Real Mock Jurors

Damages House: Non-Economic Damages Finally Make Cents

Direct Exam of a Liability Expert

Michael Cowen

Civil Rights Master Class

Dale Galipo

Dark Arts 2

Build your 8 Figure Damages House

Following his record-setting $464.5 million dollars employment retaliation jury verdict in June 2022 ($422.5 million for one plaintiff and $42.2 million for the other), David deRubertis continued his string of outlier, record-setting employment jury verdicts in 2023 with a $41.5 million whistleblower retaliation verdict against Kaiser in December 2023 preceded by a $20 million failure to accommodate verdict against Marriott in September 2023. The Kaiser verdict was the largest employment jury verdict in the country in 2023 and the Marriott verdict was a record-setting verdict for the venue it was tried in. These two cases were very different: a failure to provide a proper ergonomic workstation for a disabled concierge versus a patient safety retaliation case on behalf of a nurse. But the methods and techniques that deRubertis has honed and fine tuned for years continued to produce these outlier results. At this year’s session, deRubertis will illustrate his methods and techniques to preparing and trying employment cases through a two-day session that highlights how these methods and techniques were used in the Kaiser and Marriott cases. This will not be a rehash of last year’s session but rather will build upon it and illustrate refined techniques so that those who attended last year or new attendees will both benefit from this session.

Testimonials:
The workshop was case specific, in this instance for the Edison case, and provided insight on the challenges David faced and strategies developed to overcome them. The time spent in David's workshop was well spent not just for the lecture but the opportunity for group discussion and feedback. The whole program was also a great way to see colleagues and meet new ones.
-Michael Chang, Soco Law Firm

This hands-on workshop for plaintiffs’ lawyers will focus on learning, practicing and improving voir dire skills to help identify juror biases and uncovering hidden juror attitudes. We’ll cover crafting powerful questions that encourage honest responses, creating challenges for cause and using group dynamics to help secure a favorable jury. This is designed for the “average” personal injury case or those cases where the judge will allow 30 minutes or less for voir dire.

For more than 30 years Ben has been teaching these techniques. These techniques have allowed Ben to amass a staggering number of Verdicts in excess of one million dollars. The workshop is limited to 30 participants.

Learn how to discredit a witness, discredit an adversary, and set up a powerful, compelling, and winning argument on summation. Not only will Ben show you how to cross-examine a lay witness, but Ben will offer portable techniques to cross-examine any expert, regardless of his / her field. The class is a hands-on approach to cross-examination where you will learn how to attack and discredit an expert witness both substantively and through collateral attack. There are tried and true methods will be taught including:

-Dealing with the professional Courtroom testifier
-Properly expose a lie, so the jury Knows it’s a Lie, and not a mistake
-Exposing attempt by the Expert to minimize the injuries suffered by your client
-Proving that the witness is minimizing, modifying and exaggerating crucial parts of your case
-Turning the best answers on cross into powerful and winning arguments on summation
-Setting the witness up and knocking the witness down

For more than 30 years Ben has been teaching these techniques. These techniques have allowed Ben to amass a staggering number of Verdicts in excess of one million dollars. The workshop is limited to 10 participants.

- Michael Alder, 30-year California Trial Lawyer of the Year, with over 100 jury trials and $3.1 billion in verdicts and settlements

- Craig Hartsuyker, former Managing Partner of Farmers Insurance In-House Counsel for the State of California

- Lucy Williams-Abrego, former Supervising Attorney of Farmers Insurance California In-House Counsel

- Daniel Kruid, former Farmers Insurance HEAT Trial Lawyer (High Exposure)

This amazing behind-the-scenes look at how carriers think will shine a light on how plaintiff lawyers are viewed by insurance companies—both positively and negatively. After learning the internal mechanisms of an insurance company’s claims process, you will acquire the techniques and strategies to turbocharge your results. Guaranteed to be one of the best things you will ever hear for your practice.

**Here’s what you will learn:**

- The anatomy of insurance companies and how they cooperate with each other and share knowledge.
- The insurance company claims structure and how reserves are set.
- How insurance companies use data mining software to determine the numbers they offer on certain injuries.
- The claims handling procedures and guidelines, the philosophy on setting reserves for adjusters, how adjustments are made, what material facts can change reserves, how high exposures escalate to executive teams, and how regular audits and follow-ups ensure accuracy.
- The procedures carriers use to obtain financial authority, the escalation process from adjuster to supervisor, manager, head of department (VPs), and what significant loss reports (SLR) are and how they are crucial for obtaining financial authority.
- How conflicts are managed and what cases stay with house counsel and what cases are sent to outside counsel.
- The triggers for early settlements and the actions or evidence that prompt early settlements.
- How adjusters, in-house counsel, and outside counsel are evaluated and measured.
- Litigation strategies and key issues that will maximize the amount of your settlements and shorten the time it takes to settle cases.

Joe will share with you his most cutting edge thoughts on how to achieve incredible results in your cases. Joe will show you that you are stuck right now in a defense-created paradigm that is holding you back from the best possible results and how to break out of that paradigm. The focus will be on redefining what you are making your damages cases about and what you are undertaking to prove, learning to focus on universal and compelling human losses that you have never considered and then how to present the damages in a captivating manner. Joe will cover strategies for dealing with common defense tactics. For those who struggle with asking for money, Joe will teach you his time-proven methodologies to help you deal with the discomfort and nail the ask. This program is NOT only for catastrophic loss cases.

Deposition exhibits created specifically for your case issues make a difference. What exhibits should be used and how to create them are the focus of this program, with multiple examples that can be adopted for your case(s). Taught by deposition masters Phillip Miller (the Miller Mousetrap), Eddie J. Ciarimboli and Justin Kahn this program is guaranteed to pay dividends in your practice.

9:00-10:00 Drafting Rules and Rhetorical Qs That Provide the foundation for your exhibits.

10:15-11:15 Rhetorical questions that force commitments to key case issues with examples

Making your exhibit part of the deposition record

11:30-12:30 Creating Your Own Visuals for Depositions

Use of Powerpoint, Keynote, and Stock photos/icons

Use of AI to create a customized visual for your case

This part of the program will feature (Ben, Brian, NR) questioning jurors about:

Working with Juror’s answers given during voir dire in Summation

In this lecture track, we will discuss framing your case to highlight key themes, discredit the defense’s narrative, and lay the groundwork for a persuasive closing argument. You’ll walk away with case specific ideas on how to control the flow of information and manage perceptions from opening statements through closing argument.

Learn how to expand the scope of negligence beyond the day of injury and expose and leverage the coverup.

Identifying and presenting case-defining themes

Structuring your presentation for maximum impact

Overcoming the defense's efforts to reframe critical evidence

Leveraging case framing to enhance direct and cross-examinations

Developing key frames throughout trial to setup a simple and effective closing argument

This lecture track is led by Michael Karp and Robert Welcenbach who have used these techniques to achieve 7 and 8 figure verdicts.

With so many tools, at your fingertips, such as focus groups, mock trials, and big data, understanding juror behavior and perceptions is easy, but what do you do with all of that information? Big data analytics have transformed settlement and trial by predicting win rates, comparative fault rates, and verdict amounts, but how do you take big data findings and use them to leverage your case? Focus groups uncover key narratives and themes, but how do you synchronize information from focus groups with data results too inform your case strategy?

This seminar will explore the innovative use of focus groups and big data research in developing effective case framing and strategy. Jessica Brylo, owner and lead jury consultant at Trial Dynamics, will share insights on how to merge and leverage information gained from focus groups and big data to inform case framing, voir dire, opening, and overall case strategy.

This hands-on workshop provides attorneys with a unique opportunity to refine their voir dire skills in a controlled, constructive environment. Participants will receive personalized coaching on both question formulation and delivery techniques essential for effective jury selection. Through individual practice sessions, attorneys can polish their courtroom presence and develop strategic questioning approaches. Whether you're looking to strengthen your delivery style, craft more effective open-ended questions, or develop better techniques for uncovering juror bias, this workshop offers customized guidance to enhance your voir dire performance.

Cases are often presented in phases. The focus begins with liability, then moves to damages. In this workshop, we'll examine specific ways we can tie the defendant's bad conduct to your client's damages throughout the entire case.

Rather than unintentionally bifurcating your arguments, we'll discuss strategies and techniques to create a more unified approach: one that consistently reminds your audience not only of the harm inflicted upon your client, but the reasons for it.

From demonstrative exhibits that draw a straight line from the defendant's dangerous choices to various damages your client sustained, to examination techniques designed to keep focus on the defendant's reckless decisions throughout trial, this workshop is designed to provide practical, simple ways to maximize settlements and verdicts.

Join us for an enlightening presentation where we will explore the critical intersection of performance and trial advocacy. Trials demand peak performance under pressure, yet many lawyers lack an understanding of the Performance Cycle and how to leverage it to their advantage. In this session, you'll discover what distinguishes top performers across various disciplines and learn how to apply these insights to enhance your own trial game. We will provide a framework that brings clarity to your development as a trial lawyer, ensuring you know exactly what you’re doing and why, which will ultimately boost your confidence and thus your ability toacces the full breadth of your experience. Topics will include the three spheres of performance, strategic focus—whether on skill, strategy or other areas—how to train and refine essential trial skills, and the importance of confidence or "self-image" as a foundational element. Additionally, we will discuss optimal effort levels, the differences between actual and imagined experiences, strategies for ensuring positive imprints rather than negative ones, and the two key factors that help inoculate against pressure. Finally, you will learn how to develop your own personalized training plan. Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your trial performance!

Do you struggle with how to explain non-economic damages to jurors? In this dynamic talk, you'll learn strategies that will increase your verdicts and lower your stress. Together on stage for the first time ever, Sari de la Motte, nationally recognized trial consultant and author of 

From Hostage to Hero: Captivate the Jury By Setting Them Free 

and Christy Crowe-Childers, board certified trucking attorney, creator of the "Damages House" model, and H2H Coach will share their revolutionary methods for helping jurors understand non-economic damages. You do not want to miss this electrifying duo. Learn how Sari & Christy are helping lawyers all over the United States discuss non-economic damages in their trials, leading to bigger and bigger verdicts for them and you!

Let's face it, most jurors don't understand how to value non-economic damages, and if we're being honest, that's because most lawyers don't know how to explain them. But after attending this workshop, you'll never struggle with explaining non-economic damages again! Sari de la Motte, nationally recognized trial consultant and author of 

and Christy Crowe-Childers, board certified trucking attorney, creator of the "Damages House" model and H2H Coach will teach you their revolutionary methods for helping jurors understand non-economic damages. You'll learn how to talk about non-economic damages in voir dire using Sari's "Price vs. Value" method and learn how to seal the deal in opening with Christy's revolutionary "Damages House" model. Learn how to help jurors assign hundreds of millions of dollars in economic damages in your next case in this hands on, up on your feet workshop!

In this TBI Masterclass, Nick Rowley will go over his more than 22 year history as a trial lawyer who handles acquired/traumatic brain injury cases.

1. What is and What is Not a Brain Injury, Mechanisms of Acquired Brain Injuries

2. Loss Of Consciousness, Glascow Coma Scale, and Mini Mental Status Examinations

3. Neuropsychological Evaluations and Direct and Cross Examination of Neuropsychologists

4. Collateral Source Witnesses and Ecological Validity of Neuropsychological Testing

5. Neuroradiology, From CT Scans to Advanced Imaging

6. Direct and Cross Examination of Neurologists

Destroying Defense Experts: A step by Step Approach to Success

Have you ever watched a witness get destroyed on cross and said to yourself— that witness just fell apart - that lawyer is so lucky? This is not just the luck of the draw. There are reasons the witness exam was successful. This part of the talk will focus on techniques that deal head on with those reasons: How did the lawyer deal with the problem areas? How did the lawyer explore and explain the medicals, the financial and economic loss, and the past and future pain and suffering? How did the lawyer deal with the difficult opposing expert - both substantively and through collateral attack? And how did the lawyer set the stage for final argument? Real life examples from hundreds of trials will be offered. Examples and Demonstrations of Cross Examination will be offered during this lecture. These lectures will leave you with portable techniques designed to help you win your next trial – regardless of the courtroom experience of the opposing witness or Expert.

We are excited to offer a second session of the Dark Art of Trial Craft for lawyers who have attended the first session of the Dark Art of Trial Craft at any of the TLU Programs.

In the #2 session, we will focus on rhetorical devices used to drive juries to award outrageously large verdicts. We will also spend time working on developing winning opening statements for students’ individual trials. Also, more time will be spent on how to use in trial the communication techniques developed by the famed hypnotherapist Milton Erickson.

The class will be taught by TLU Dark Arts instructor David Clark, who is the private trial coach to many of the best trial lawyers in America today.

Michael Cowen will share his techniques for creating a compelling direct examination of a liability expert. He will show how to teach the jury the rules that a defendant is supposed to follow and how to structure the presentation so that the jury concludes that the defendant was negligent. He will present a live demonstration with a real trucking expert.

Coached attorneys: Michael Cowen & Kellen Bradley

Join us for an engaging and interactive live voir dire coaching session. In this unique format, two attorneys, Michael Cowen and Kellen Bradley, will question real mock jurors for a simulated voir dire. Jury consultant Jessica Brylo will interject throughout the session to offer immediate feedback, suggestions, and strategic adjustments to enhance the effectiveness of the questioning techniques.

This dynamic demonstration will not only showcase the nuances of voir dire but also highlight the importance of adaptability and responsiveness in real-time interactions with potential jurors. Attendees will gain valuable insights into the art of jury selection, learning how to refine their questioning strategies based on juror reactions and feedback. By the end of this session, participants will leave with practical tools and techniques to improve their own voir dire practices, making this a must-attend event for legal professionals looking to elevate their trial preparation skills.

Working Up A Civil Rights Case Before Trial

A. Considerations In Deciding Whether To Take A Civil Rights Case
B. Dealing With The Related Criminal Case
C. What To Do Before Filing The Lawsuit
D. Filing The Complaint
E. Getting The Documents
F. Taking Effective Depositions
G. Framing The Case
H. Setting The Standard(s)
I. Using Experts
J. Opposing Summary Judgment
K. Dealing With Qualified Immunity

Dale's class was extremely motivating and informative. He was able to convey all of the hurdles a civil rights lawyer has to face at a very human level, which I think is what makes him such an effective advocate.
-Matt Falkenstein

Dale Galipo's Civil Rights College was the best part of the weekend. Dale does a great job of providing an outline on how to approach civil rights cases from start to finish. He is very easy to follow and uses real life case examples that were great to listen to. I plan on going back this year and can't wait to see Dale in action again.
-Michael Carrillo, Carrillo Law Firm

Here is where it all comes together. The bridge set up during jury selection will be crossed to deliver an unstoppable closing argument. The use of answers received during direct and cross will be delivered in a way that resonate in the jury deliberation room. The use of analogies and metaphors will serve as shining examples of why your client is entitled to substantial damages — and why anything less would be unjust. The ability to ask for numbers will be thoroughly explored. And the use of demonstrative exhibits will be featured in this talk.

David Clark will be teaching how million-dollar betrayal opening statements are created. Betrayal theme opening statements are used to incite the jury to emotional anger, which then replaces rational thought. The jurors – blinded by anger and thirsting for revenge – are then compelled to return a multi-million dollar “nuclear verdict”. At the high end of the plaintiffs’ bar betrayal theme narratives are currently being used to drive compensatory and punitive damages to stunning levels.

Students in this small interactive class of ten students will get hands-on experience in creating betrayal theme openings for their cases.

This is a “dark art” class and is restricted to verified plaintiff lawyers only.

The critical skills to most effectively deliver cross are; leading questions only, one new fact per question, using only present tense, using your hand to control the witness, creating space, effectively using a flip chart to anchor points, bringing the jury in, and closing through cross-examination.
Classes are limited to six participants.

We will be learning and practicing these skills through the use of three chapters of cross-examination.

There will be three zoom prep sessions to practice the scripts.

Testimonials:
“I left the program more comfortable making eye contact with people as a presenter as well as a listener. While sitting as a member of our practice jury, I had a tendency of looking away, looking down, and closing my eyes when the presenter would attempt to make a connection with me. This will help me not only as a trial lawyer but also in my everyday interactions with the people around me.”
-Derick Runion, Curiel & Runion Personal Injury Lawyers

"Before this program, I talked fast because I didn’t want to bore my listener and I wanted to get out everything I had to say before I forgot anything. However, once we watched ourselves on video, I realized that speaking slowly gives jurors time to process what I'm saying and looks more professional.”
-Jose Robles, Robles Babaee Personal Injury Lawyers

Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries can be difficult cases to prove to a jury. I will discuss the strategies and techniques used in my last 2 jury trials to convince the jury that the truck crashes caused mild traumatic brain injuries, even when the first responders and medical providers fail to document symptoms and/or diagnose the mTBI.

This workshop is going to make you money. You will learn how to easily concretize and monetize the abstract concept of pain and suffering for your client, yourself, and the jury. Christy Childers has created a revolutionary damages model. This workshop will change the way you organize, prepare, and try cases. After taking you through the foundation of the method, Christy Childers will teach you how to build your own Damages House house and furnish it. She will then teach you the 6 steps of a Damages House Opening. You will then practice and perfect it with her. She will also show you techniques for using the model to organize your case, on Direct and in Closing. By the end of this workshop you will be able to give a Damages House opening, a tool that has helped many lawyers across the nation get big verdicts with confidence.

The bootcamp will start in Huntington Beach on Sunday, June 2, and goes until Tuesday, June 4. The combo ticket includes the TLU Live HB ticket, June 5, 6, 7, and 8.

TLU Trial Skills Bootcamp is an intensive where participants will exponentially improve their presentation, cross-examination, and voir dire skills. Video replay will be used throughout. To master any complex skill it must be broken down to its fundamentals (micro-skills). The micro skills must be identified, isolated, and practiced to the point of unconscious competence. The micro-skills of persuasion are:

Participants will practice these skills in the context of voir dire, opening statement and cross-examination.

"The TLU bootcamps are great. Solid tools to help you see your blind spots in how you are coming across to the jury. You are forced to see yourself as a presenter, and given tools to present more effectively to the jury. The bootcamps have helped me become a better storyteller by helping me build habits so my countenance and postures don't come across as forced, but as natural extensions of my client's story."

"I believe that participating in the TLU bootcamps has been the single most beneficial investment that I have made in myself as a trial lawyer. It provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity to work on everything from jury connection to storytelling within the courtroom and the confines of a case. I don't believe that the skills taught in this program are available anywhere else, and any lawyer who is serious about trial work MUST make this investment in yourself."

TLU Skills Bootcamp

Handling your first trucking case can feel like jumping into the driver’s seat of an 18-wheeler without a map—but don’t worry, we’ve got your route planned. Corey Suda will guide you through every critical step, from securing key evidence like black box data and driver logs to countering the aggressive tactics of big trucking defense teams. You'll learn how to tackle federal regulations, expose company negligence, and avoid the common pitfalls that can derail a case. With real-world strategies and expert insights, this session will give you the tools to confidently take on your first trucking case—and come out ahead.

Referenced to your own case summaries (which I'll review in advance) experience and start to practice three essential persuasive techniques: one verbal, one visual, and one nonverbal. These powerful techniques have stood the test of time, proving themselves worth the effort to adopt and employ them to your clients' benefit.

CONNECTION is the not-so-secret sauce of every big verdict/great trial lawyer. It is not an art, it is not something some people are born with and others are not. Connecting is a skill that can be learned and mastered. Like all complex skills that one is seeking to learn and master, it has to
be broken down into its component parts, its micro-skills, which have to be identified, isolated, and practiced. The micro-skills of connection are; eye contact, emotional state control(facial expressions) voice control, hand movement/gestures, body movement, glance control, word choice, creating space, and being KIND. Classes are limited to six participants.
We will be learning, practicing, and mastering these skills.

There will be three Zoom meet ups before the event to prepare.

Michael Hill

Finding the Value in Elder Abuse Cases: Maximizing Damages for the “Old, Sick, and Dying”

Think you know TBI? Think again. In this workshop, I’m pulling back the curtain on mild TBI cases—the ones that slip through the cracks and leave your clients without the justice they deserve. With a track record of TWO Top Five Verdicts and TWO Top Five Settlements in Texas, I’ve cracked the code on these elusive cases, and now I’m sharing my secrets with you. Most lawyers and doctors miss the subtle signs that can make or break a case, but I’m going to show you how to spot them, expose them, and turn them into justice for your client. We’ll dive deep into the areas where mild TBI cases get derailed—how to handle tricky diagnoses, why your experts might be failing you, why defense experts are often full of it and how to make the jury see what everyone else misses. This isn’t some generic, cookie-cutter advice—it’s real, battle-tested strategy that’s won me some of the toughest cases out there. If you’re tired of watching your mild TBI cases fizzle out, it’s time to learn from someone who’s been there, done that, and won. This is your chance to go from good to legendary. Sign up and learn how to dominate in your mild TBI cases.

CONNECTION is the not-so-secret sauce of every big verdict/great trial lawyer. It is not an art, it is not something some people are born with and others are not. Connecting is a skill that can be learned and mastered. Like all complex skills that one is seeking to learn and master, it has to be broken down into its component parts, its micro-skills, which have to be identified, isolated, and practiced. The micro-skills of connection are; eye contact, emotional state control(facial expressions) voice control, hand movement/gestures, body movement, glance control, word choice, creating space, and being KIND.

We will be learning, practicing, and mastering these skills in the context of opening statement which will also include mastering the use of visuals.

Classes are limited to five participants. There will be three Zoom prep sessions to practice.

Testimonials:
“Before I came to this bootcamp, I would use my hands while presenting but without much of a purpose and irregularly. Now I have much better command of my hand gesticulation and when to use it to help amplify the effectiveness of my presentation.”
-Hunter Norton, Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP

“I never realized how much control we have when we systematically use our hands. Meaningful hand gesticulation is powerful when trying to connect and bring someone in that you have never met before.”
-Triumph Curiel, Curiel & Runion Personal Injury Lawyers

Much of what you learned in law school about how to conduct cross-examination is wrong-headed, ineffectual or is apt to anger the jury. Learn a new, more effective way to think about cross-examination as a way to tell your own trial story through the other side’s witnesses. And since “control is an illusion” learn how to expose adverse witnesses rather than “control” them. Come prepared to play.

$931,875.00 verdict on a $25,000.00 offer on a rear-end collisions case of less than 5 mph with no property damage to either vehicle.Police were not called to the scene and no medical treatment until the next day.Client had significant 10-year history of pre-existing low back injury.

Opening Framing of the case – “Broke the law and caused a crash, looking for a free pass because the victim had been injured before.”

No remorse from Defendant – 1st witness

Independent witness to verify severity of injuries (program director of volunteer group)

Defense’s cross of the Plaintiff shows medical bills include medical treatment for stuff that clearly was not caused by the crash, treatment for injury for 10 years up to the year before the injury, and medical records that showed she had the same complains before the crash as she had after the crash

Closing – Being honest and admitting a mistake we made in the trial regarding medical bills

- Our client was a 36-year-old college professor who was driving her SUV on a four-lane highway with her four kids. She slowed down with traffic. Behind her was a large, commercial dump truck that maintained speed and came upon the slowing traffic. The dump truck swerved and smashed into the side of our client’s car.

Our client was found to be alert and oriented at the scene. She went to the ER, complained of bumps and bruises, and was released that day. She and her family then checked into a local hotel where they stayed for four days. Our client could not bear to get back into a car to drive home, though home was only 30 minutes away.

We contended that our client had a mTBI and PTSD. Our client claimed that her life changed after the crash. She claimed that her teaching was impacted, and some student reviews supported that. But, four months after the crash, she was given tenure and promoted. Two years after that, however, she resigned from her position and took an assistant principal position with a small, private school for children.

At trial, the defense claimed that our client’s problems were due to her long-standing problems with anxiety. Our client had been given medication for anxiety before the crash but was not always compliant. The defense pointed out that she had marital problems before the crash, she had a demanding and stressful job, she was raising kids in a blended and interracial marriage, etc. They pointed to several times before the crash that she had been overwhelmed with life.

The highest defense offer before trial was $125,000. The jury awarded $1.75M plus pre-judgment interest of approximately $471,000, for a total verdict of $2.2M.

Here are the teaching points for the session:

Make the trial not just a battle of credibility, but a battle of integrity. Expose the defense’s lack of integrity by showing that their claim to accept responsibility is not true, their witnesses cut corners, they ignored material evidence but focused on immaterial evidence, etc. We do a sort of polarizing the integrity of the case that we’ve found to be effective.

As I learned from Jakob Norman at TLU Vegas a couple years ago, start the closing around the verdict form. It is the most important document in the whole case. “Verdict” means to speak the truth, but the form allows only a number to be written. Not an essay, not a speech. Just a number. That’s incredibly powerful and helpful.

If your jurisdiction requires detailed expert reports (like in federal court), don’t take the defense expert’s deposition before trial (unless for housekeeping purposes or unless you want to blow the expert up to facilitate a settlement). If you do, the expert will see the weak points of their position and bolster those for trial. Perhaps more importantly, you want to make the expert uncomfortable and you want their body language to change when you do cross examination. The expert will feel far less comfortable if they are not accustomed to how you view the issues in the case, your rhythms, your cadence, your energy, etc. The jury may not get all of the nuances of the case, but they will see the expert squirm. You want the jury to see that discomfort and the inconsistency between the expert in direct and the expert in cross.

Don’t value a case like how the defense does. The defense is all about diagnosis, ICD codes, CPT codes, and other quantifiable labels that fit into an algorithm. But the deliberation room is not equipped with computers, actuarial tables, artificial intelligence, etc. It is seven people sitting around a table valuing things based on their individual and collective experiences and values. We can’t make the mistake of falling into the defense’s way of doing things and focusing on the clinical aspects of the case as opposed to the stark ways the injury has impacted our client’s life. This is especially true with mild TBI claims, which can be very nuanced injuries.

After exposing the battle of the case, ask the jurors for help. Unless a juror has a strong personal sense of justice that is implicated by the case, they will not necessarily feel invested to fight for a stranger. Fighting for a stranger is awkward in our society, where our default position is to be apathetic or to avoid conflict out of a sense of making peace. But asking jurors to fight empowers them – it gives them permission to have a stake in the fight and helps them see the importance of their work.

Be willing to have “trojan horse” expert witnesses that you do not call at trial. In our last couple of trials we learned that the defense planned to launch withering attacks on two of our expert witnesses. In fact, we could tell that the defense planned to make those attacks the centerpiece of their defense based on the massive posterboards the defense brought into the courtroom. Both of our experts performed poorly in their depositions and if they performed poorly at trial it could have irreparably undermined our integrity and credibility. After concluding that we could get the experts’ anticipated evidence in through other ways, we elected at the last minute to drop both of those experts. The defense was flat-footed, and the jury was left with the lasting image of the defense having these massive posterboards at trial that they never used.

If the defense expert only does a records review but does not actually examine the client, use the “negative space” technique to expose the weakness of their opinions. At this trial the defense expert did not examine the witness and testified in front of the jury that Lauren, my wife and co-counsel who was seated at counsel table, was the client. We set that up and actually had the jury laughing during closing..

George Moschopoulos & Andrew Ryan - White v. Rockport, et al. Verdict was $1.2M

Case description is as follows: Malissa White was employed as a nurse at nursing home where she was asked to participate in a Medicare fraud scheme. She reported the scheme to her employer and to the state, but her employer took no corrective action. Instead, her employer continued to require her to participate in the scheme. She refused and resigned. She filed suit claiming constructive discharge, or that she was illegally forced to quit. She found a job that paid her more than 25% of her prior salary within two weeks following her resignation. She made claims for non-economic damages only, but had not sought or received any medical treatment. Trial opened on Monday and a verdict was reached by Friday afternoon of that same week.

The importance of focus groups and “losing” your case.
Cutting trial down to the bare essence.

Asking for non-economic damages when there is no treatment and the plaintiff earns more money at a new job.

Lloyd Bell

Monte Tynes

Bob Byrne

George Moschopoulos

Andrew Ryan

Try your FRKN Case

This course will help you develop your own set of mindset hacks for trial and closing argument. Based upon a real case, you will learn how to align your case with what jurors are deciding in a post-truth world by exploring the jury consultant and lawyer relationship.

Ben B. Rubinowitz

Rahul Ravipudi

Dan Ambrose

Joe Fried

Nick Rowley

Rob Ammons

David DeRubertis

Sach Oliver

Dale Galipo

Michael Alder

David Sugden

Christy Crowe Childers

Al Foeckler

Przemek Lubecki

Ricardo Echeverria

Ryan Skiver

Mohamad Ahmad

Maxey Scherr

Andrew Robb

Lambros Lambrou

Jessica Brylo

Don Bauermeister

Randall Sorrels

Michael Karp

Randi McGinn

Deena Buchanan

Michael Hill

Scott Frost

Bobby Taghavi

Moses Kim

Dirk Vandever

Kenneth Berger

Eric Oliver

Sari De La Motte

Jason Waechter

Edward Ciarimboli

Jonathan Michaels

Sagi Shaked

Steven DeBosier

Michael Cowen

Lloyd Bell

Phillip Miller

John Romano

Kurt Zaner

Bobby Taghavi

TLU Live HB Agenda

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Track 2

Track 3

Track 4

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