This is the first book ever written for the defense on how to avoid runaway jury verdicts. I wrote this book because I care about fairness. I believe everyone has the right to a fair trial, not just plaintiff lawyers and their clients. Defendants are entitled to have a jury decide their case without being stirred with passion and bias by creative plaintiff lawyers.This is the defense “playbook” for justice. You will learn trial techniques to even the playing field for defendants seeking a fair trial. Every aspect of a civil jury trial will be covered, from voir dire to opening statements to witnesses and finally closing arguments. There is a formula for defeating plaintiff attorneys’ deceptive tactics and psychological gamesmanship, and you will learn it.While full of 30 years of trial victories and personal experiences, this is a “how to” book. How to defend at trial. How to beat plaintiff attorneys at their own game. How to win. It is time to bring an end to the epidemic of nuclear verdicts across our country. It is time for you to take back justice for all!NUCLEAR VERDICTS MUST BE STOPPED! YOU CAN STOP THEM.RESPONSIBILITY. In every jury trial, accepting responsibility is not only the right thing to do, it is the most important thing you will do, no exceptions. Own what you did in every single jury trial, no excuses.REASONABLENESS. Be the most reasonable person in the courtroom. Do not take the typical defense approach of fighting every little thing. Show the jury you care, and they will return a verdict that is fair and just for all.COMMON SENSE. The ultimate equalizer in any case is common sense. It allows the jury to come to a conclusion that is fair and reasonable. You must go beyond the evidence and the law, and help the jury apply their common sense for a righteous verdict. Read more

"ONE OF THE BEST LEGAL THRILLERS OF THE 21st CENTURY" - BEST THRILLERS.com Victoria Lord follows all the rules...Steve Solomon makes up his own...Defending a murder trial, they'll either end up in ruin, in jail...or in bed.Steve Solomon is the sharpest lawyer to barely graduate from law school. Victoria Lord toils for an ambitious D.A., before Solomon gets her fired. Thrown together, they defend a sexy young widow charged with killing her kinky husband in Miami's steamiest trial of the century."Remarkably fresh and original. A hilarious, touching and entertaining twist on the legal thriller." - Chicago Sun-Times "Hiaasen meets Grisham in the court of last retort. A sexy, wacky, wonderful thriller with humor and heart." - Harlan Coben"The juiciest and funniest lingo I've read in a thriller in a long time." - Connecticut Post Read more

When Princeton historian D. Graham Burnett answered his jury duty summons, he expected to spend a few days catching up on his reading in the court waiting room. Instead, he finds himself thrust into a high-pressure role as the jury foreman in a Manhattan trial. There he comes face to face with a stunning act of violence, a maze of conflicting evidence, and a parade of bizarre witnesses. But it is later, behind the closed door of the jury room, that he encounters the essence of the jury experience — he and eleven citizens from radically different backgrounds must hammer consensus out of confusion and strong disagreement. By the time he hands over the jury’s verdict, Burnett has undergone real transformation, not just in his attitude toward the legal system, but in his understanding of himself and his peers.Offering a compelling courtroom drama and an intimate and sometimes humorous portrait of a fractious jury, A Trial by Juryis also a finely nuanced examination of law and justice, personal responsibility and civic duty, and the dynamics of power and authority between twelve equal people. Read more

A young bride drowns in her bathtub. Her husband of four months is accused of murder. What happened in their tiny suburban bathroom--and why--was never resolved. A gripping true-crime drama, based on exclusive new information, SUBMERGED exposes hidden angles of a case that divided an American community, tore apart two families and tested the criminal justice system. Compelled by conscience and curiosity, former Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Janice Hisle--who covered the saga of Ryan and Sarah Widmer from the start--dug deep to tell the untold story. SUBMERGED will draw you into the depths of a stranger-than-fiction story that you will ponder long after turning the final page. Read more

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ameron Todd Willingham refused to walk to his own execution. He was innocent, he insisted, and so the guards on the Texas Death Row carried him to his death. He died for the crime of arson, for killing his own three young children in the flames. The Skeptical Juror examines the crime and the trial through transcripts and court documents, and presents a fictionalized view into what a jury deliberation in such a sensational crime might have been like. Then, in the aftermath section, an examination of new discoveries in arson-investigation science show that Willingham may have been innocent. He may be the first conclusively demonstrated innocent person to be executed in America. Read more

Times have changed, and lawyers must change with the times. Jurors have become experts in everything and suspicious of everyone, including lawyers and their hand-picked experts. Jurors are increasingly focused on the information and increasingly annoyed by the way lawyers spin and spoon-feed it to them.It's not about us anymore. Tell jurors something is "clear," and they will assume it is not. Tell them to award a specific number, and they will avoid that number like the bubonic plague. They are tired of lawyers' arguments and objections. They want lawyers to stop bickering, roll up their sleeves, and start helping them wade through the evidence. Forget traditional voir dire, one-sided opening statements, naive cross-examination, and hard-selling closing arguments. Stop emulating mad dog litigators and calling bobblehead experts. It's time for a new trial playbook that ignores conventional wisdom and embraces the changes in jury psychology. Our jurors know they are the most important people in the courtroom, and they want better service. Let's give it to them. Yes, becoming good waiters is easier said than done, but we must rethink our approach. We have no choice. We must adapt or die. The Golden Age of Lawyers has ended. The Age of Jurors has begun. Read more

On January 14, 2009, Marissa DeVault killed her husband, Dale Harrell, by striking him multiple times on the head with a hammer. It seemed like a simple case of murder, but questions remained. Was Dale Harrell a hapless, innocent victim of a brutal killing, or was this the final act of a desperate woman who had suffered through years of domestic violence? The fact that the incident took place in a middle class suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, with the couple’s three children within the property at the time, meant nothing. The questions for the jury were simple. Was the killing premeditated or was it an act of self defense? Was it done for financial gain? Should the defendant pay for her crime with her life, should she be incarcerated for twenty-five years to life, or should she receive a life sentence with no chance of parole? Author Paul Sanders was Juror #13 in a trial packed with twists and turns. He sat every day in court, in a trial which got deep inside the day-to-day lives of a family and eventually delivered justice to a victim. Read this remarkable true story now and make up your own mind as to the truth behind the Hammer Killing Trial. Amazon reviews: “Mr. Sanders is a brilliant writer. You feel like you are right in the courtroom with him…” “This is a must-read for any avid trial watcher!” “Brain Damage is a very interesting journey through a death penalty trial. It made me want to be a juror!” Also,Paul’s book, Banquet of Consequences: A Juror’s Plight (Book 3 - A Juror’s Perspective) has received many awards: • 2018 eLit Awards Gold Medal Winner – True Crime • 2018 International Books Awards Silver Medal Awards – Historical • 2018 “Best Book” Award Winner Finalist – True Crime • 2018 “Reader’s Favorite – Five Stars • 2018 Florida Book Festival Award Winner – Non-Fiction • 2018 London Book Festival Award Runner-Up – Non-Fiction • 2017 The Halloween Book Festival Award Winner – Non-Fiction • 2017 Southern California Book Festival Award Winner – Non-Fiction Also Written By Paul Sanders Banquet of Consequences: A Juror’s Plight The Carnation Murders Trial of Michele Anderson (2017) Why Not Kill Her: A Juror’s Perspective The Jodi Arias Death Penalty Retrial (2016) Secret Life of a Juror: Voir Dire The Domestic Violence Query (2018) Beyond the Pale: Rogue Juror The Death Penalty Trial of Joseph McEnroe (Coming 2020) Read more

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March 14th, 2012 was a typical day for Emma Simpson, a successful portfolio manager running the Manhattan office of a big-time hedge fund. Emma followed her usual routine, interacting with coworkers and clients before returning to her quiet family home in the Hudson Valley, where she lives with her husband and two children.But more than a year later, Emma’s world is forever changed—all because of a short email she dashed off on her way home that day to simply support routine company practices. That email becomes the focal point of a criminal investigation by ambitious federal prosecutors.Alexandra Shapiro’s Presumed Guilty follows Emma’s journey as the target of a federal white-collar criminal prosecution. She must now fight to prove her innocence, protect her family, and preserve her reputation.Will she prevail, or will the justice system fail her? Read more

Amazon Bestseller! Are you struggling to find your stride as a trial attorney? Do you fail, even when you know you are doing everything the “right” way? Then there is only one question to answer: Are you ready to live by a code and system that will work in any situation? Using Sun Tzu’s revered The Art of War as a point of inspiration and reference, Michael Waddington offers up bite-size pieces of advice, snippets of strategy, and countless nuggets of wisdom he’s accumulated over hundreds of trials. Instead of dwelling on the logistics and technicalities of trial practice, The Art of Trial Warfare illustrates the habits of a successful trial attorney. It speaks eloquently to the art of attack, of exploiting weaknesses, and of leveraging each success. After time, the wisdom becomes muscle memory, instilling habits that will improve any trial attorneys game. Trial is war. Trial lawyers would be well-served to dip into this handy resource time and time again. It serves as an excellent overall philosophy, as well as the ultimate pep talk. Read more

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An argument for the constitutional responsibility to participate in jury dutyIt’s easy to forget how important the jury really is to America. The right to be a juror is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed to all eligible citizens. The right to trial by jury helped spark the American Revolution, was quickly adopted at the Constitutional Convention, and is the only right that appears in both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But for most of us, a jury summons is an unwelcome inconvenience. Who has time for jury duty? We have things to do.In Why Jury Duty Matters, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson reminds us that whether we like it or not, we are all constitutional actors. Jury duty provides an opportunity to reflect on that constitutional responsibility. Combining American history, constitutional law, and personal experience, the book engages citizens in the deeper meaning of jury service. Interweaving constitutional principles into the actual jury experience, this book is a handbook for those Americans who want to enrich the jury experience. It seeks to reconnect ordinary citizens to the constitutional character of a nation by focusing on the important, and largely ignored, democratic lessons of the jury.Jury duty is a shared American tradition. It connects people across class and race, creates habits of focus and purpose, and teaches values of participation, equality, and deliberation. We know that juries are important for courts, but we don’t know that jury service is important for democracy. This book inspires us to re-examine the jury experience and act on the constitutional principles that guide our country before, during, and after jury service. Read more

Learn the easy system for giving emotionally-powerful closing arguments without using a single note. This is a practitioner's how-to guide, written for quick absorption and immediate use. It is aimed at practicing trial lawyers who handle civil, criminal and administrative proceedings. As such Garrity's book is short - fifty pages in the print edition - and gets right to the point, explaining the four prongs of the technique, citing the psychological studies showing why they work, and explaining how to easily implement his system. Garrity observed, after appearing as counsel in nearly 2,000 federal and state court cases, that many trial lawyers step to the podium for closing arguments with nothing more than a legal pad full of hastily-written, disjointed notes. The result is that these lawyers often make final arguments without a cohesive theme. Sometimes the arguments seem out of order, lack emotion and force, and simply rehash basic facts. Concluding that there had to be an easier – and better – way to make powerful summations, Garrity spent two years reviewing hardcore psychological research on the science of “compliance” – of persuading others to accept a particular statement or argument as true. After all, closing arguments are the ultimate effort in message persuasion. The research led Garrity to conclude that when it comes to closing arguments specifically, it's not the message that matters most. It's how you present it - your "messaging mechanics." He stresses that the jury has already heard your evidence - much of it twice because of the penchant of most litigators to repeat things to make sure the jury “gets it.” So closing is the time to persuade the jury to believe – to believe you, and to believe your message. His simple, note-free system emphasizes pathos (or passion as Aristotle defined it), eye contact, rhetoric and metaphors. This is the PERM system. Garrity’s technique combines these four compliance elements – supported by the more than forty research studies he lists in the opening pages – to offer you a transformational approach to closing arguments. How do jurors react? One juror told Garrity after a trial that it was "...one of the most moving experiences I have ever been through...I was....honored and humbled to be part of it…very powerful, very moving…It was your belief in the righteousness of the situation.” Read more

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Paris Pennington, a lovely workaholic about to be confronted with adversity and chaos, with challenges leading her to restlessness, uncertainty, and questioning her life choices and her current path. The fabric of her life begins to be picked apart as people around her start dying. A crossroad leads her to make a change and promises to fulfill her dreams while an embattled personal war between past and present comes together, testing loyalty and the forces of envy that may prevent tomorrow from coming.Recommended by: Golden Globe-Nominated American Actress and Author Mariel Hemingway: "Keeps readers engaged in not only Paris’s personal life, but also the world of murder, tragedy, death, and the hope for justice.” And Best Selling Author J.J. Hebert states, “Paris Pennington is a protagonist that you find yourself rooting for from start to finish, even as those close to her mysteriously fall.”Crossroads: A Suspense Novelrhondaparkertaylor.com Read more

On June 21, 2007, Thomas E. Toolan III was convicted of first-degree murder and of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for the October 25, 2004 killing of Elizabeth "Beth" Lochtefeld in her rented cottage on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. It was the first homicide in Nantucket in twenty-one years. Media covering the trial included ABC's internet services division, CBS' 48 Hours, NBC's Dateline, NPR, People Magazine, the New York Post, The Nantucket Inqurer And Mirror, The Nantucket Independent, and The Cape Cod Times. The author attended the nearly three-week trial from the beginning of opening statements, and this is his account of the day-to-day proceedings. Read more

WINNER OF THE LITERARY TITAN GOLD BOOK AWARDAMAZON BEST SELLER SCIENCE MEETS MAGIC…In his latest inspirational and suspenseful novel, Trial and Redemption, Reilly continues the saga of a mystical Janus key and its time-bending influence on 21st-century characters, first introduced in the award-winning Chasing Time.Disgraced scientist Brian Ellis finds an improbable ally in Julie, a college student trying to reset her life after a family tragedy. Guided by a Janus key with magical powers to predict future events, they embark on a crusade to bring a corrupt pharmaceutical executive to justice, prevent a medical tragedy, and restore peace to their shattered lives. However, Brian guards a dark secret that may imperil both their mission and their redemption.Filled with unexpected twists and turns, memorable characters, and heart-stopping suspense, Trial and Redemption is an emotive mix of medical and legal fiction with a touch of fantasy. Read more

An illuminating exercise that challenges the reader's beliefs about the justice systemA police trooper inspects a car during a routine traffic stop and finds a vast cache of weapons, complete with automatic rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and black ski masks-a veritable bank robber's kit. Should the men in the car be charged? If so, with what? A son neglects to care for his elderly mother, whose emaciated form is discovered shortly before she dies a painful death. Is the son's neglect punishable, and if so how? A career con man writes one bad check too many and is sentenced to life in prison-for a check in the amount of $129.75. Is this just? A thief steals a backpack, only to find it contains a terrorist bomb. He alerts the police and saves lives, transforming himself from petty criminal to national hero. These are just a few of the many provocative cases that Paul Robinson presents and unravels in Would You Convict? Judging crimes and meting out punishment has long been an informal national pasttime. High-profile crimes or particularly brutal ones invariably prompt endless debate, in newspapers, on television, in coffee shops, and on front porches. Our very nature inclines us to be armchair judges, freely waving our metaphorical gavels and opining as to the innocence or guilt-and suitable punishment-of alleged criminals. Confronting this impulse, Paul Robinson here presents a series of unusual episodes that not only challenged the law, but that defy a facile or knee-jerk verdict. Narrating the facts in compelling, but detached detail, Robinson invites readers to sentence the transgressor (or not), before revealing the final outcome of the case. The cases described in Would You Convict? engage, shock, even repel. Without a doubt, they will challenge you and your belief system. And the way in which juries and judges have resolved them will almost certainly surprise you. Read more