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Many of you who practice law in Tennessee
have read and used books by attorney John Day as a resource in your law practice. These books include Day on Torts:
Leading Cases in Tennessee Tort Law and Tennessee Law of Comparative Fault. I have used both of these books on numerous
occasions. The good news is John Day now
has a new book called, “Tennessee Law
of Civil Trial.” This can be added to
your list of helpful Tennessee specific law books written by attorney John
Day. He sent me a copy and requested I
write a review and it has been a good experience.
The main purpose of this book is to clearly outline
the “Law of Civil Trial” in Tennessee in a concise helpful way. John Day points out, as many of us have come to
realize, that there are significantly less trials in Tennessee than there were
in the past (I have
blogged about this issue previously).
As a result, less and less attorneys have significant civil trial
experience and therefore he felt a resource would be helpful for those
attorneys who still occasionally go to trial but may not have the trial experience
a lot of attorneys had in the past. I
think this is the primary value of this book.
The secondary value is to provide a helpful reference on specific topics
for more experienced attorneys who have tried many cases. This group of attorneys can still benefit
from this book because it provides a refresher course on certain topics. I will be placing this book in my firm’s
library because it is a resource that can be taken to trial or reviewed prior
to trial to remind you of certain trial concepts that we may not use on a
day-to-day basis.
This book discusses many different areas and
I think it is helpful for you to know the topics so you can better understand
the scope of this book. This book
provides chapters on the following topics:
1. Scheduling orders
2. Final Pretrial Conferences
3. Motions in Limine
4. Jury selection
5. The Rule
6. Opening Statements and Closing Arguments
7. Examination of Witnesses
8. Use of Depositions at Trial
9. Opinion and Expert Testimony
10. Mistrials
11. Motions for Directed Verdicts
12. Findings of Fact
13. Jury Instructions
14. Juror Questions
15. Verdict Forms
16. Discretionary Expenses
17. Motions for New Trial and to Alter or Amend
Judgment
18. Remittitur
19. Additur
20. Motions for Judgment Notwithstanding the
Verdict
21. Preparing to Win at Trial
As you can see this is a comprehensive
discussion of some very important areas of law that we come across during the
context of a civil trial. Please note - this
is not a Rule of Evidence book. As John
Day states in his book, there are other books written in Tennessee on the Rules
of Evidence that comprehensively deal with that subject. The way I would characterize this book is it
is a practical guide to the ins and outs of trial practice. There are citations to case law throughout
the book that can be used to prepare for issues that may come up at trial.
Additionally, there is a helpful list of 77
“tips” for trial. Some of these tips are
simply the way John Day has found that he prefers to practice. Some of them I use and some of them I think
of differently. However, all of them got
me thinking about different ways to approach trial and to be a better attorney. That should always be our goal when we study
the law – and that should never stop as long as we practice.
I mainly recommend this book to newer
attorneys or those who do not have the opportunity to go to trial very
often. As fewer cases are tried in
Tennessee, there are less attorneys who have the practical trial knowledge and
experience to give advice on trial issues.
Therefore younger attorneys are going to have less available resources from
whom to obtain advice on trial issues in the future – this will only get worse
as time passes. This can especially be a
problem in small law firms or for solo practitioners. As a result, I highly recommend this book for
those individuals. I also think this
book is appropriate for more experienced attorneys to use in order to remind of
important concepts leading up to trial.
Some of these concepts we are aware of, but do not use as frequently as
we would probably desire. This is why I
review the Tennessee Rules of Evidence before every trial – not in great
detail, but just to remind myself of all of the rules so they are fresh in my
mind. This book can be reviewed before
each trial in the same way for those that are more experienced trial attorneys. Once again, John Day has added another
valuable resource for practitioners of law in Tennessee.
Follow me on Twitter at @jasonalee for updates from the Tennessee Defense Litigation
blog.
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