Based on extensive research as well as the experience of lawyers and trial consultants across the country, David Ball on Damages: A Plaintiff’s Attorney’s Guide for Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Cases supplies step-by-step practical guidance for attorneys seeking money for their clients. Popular author David Ball begins with the four basic principles of damages that shape juror decision making about money. He examines juror motivations for awarding money, and why some jurors are reluctant to award compensation, especially for intangible damages. The book explores intangible damages in detail, which Ball claims are hard to get because jurors do not always understand what purpose the money can serve. Ball examines going to trial with or without voir dire and discusses specific strategies to enhance damages cases for voir dire, opening, direct and cross-examination, and closing. The appendices provide methods, strategies, and structures for voir dire and opening that are designed to work with the damages strategies described in the book.
Ball stresses that a punitive damages campaign is rarely effective unless you pursue it on a variety of fronts throughout trial, and he demonstrates that even the best damages case can be undermined if jurors think you have the wrong motives. While the book focuses on strategies and techniques for plaintiff’s lawyers, any defense attorney would also benefit from Ball’s instruction in this book.
