The second edition of The Domino Theory has thirteen new chapters, including new examples and strategies for dealing with minor impact soft-tissue and auto crash cases, discovery, cross-examination, and damages. Capozzi does more than expand upon new ways to win your cases using the domino theory, he also shares many of the other methods he’s used to obtain hundreds of settlements and verdicts of six and seven figures in cases ranging from soft-tissue injuries to wrongful death.
In The Domino Theory, Capozzi shows how each part of your case is a domino—one step in a cause-and-effect cascade. He takes you through client intake, prelitigation, discovery, and trial and shares how to demonstrate all of the elements you need to prove a personal injury case to a jury: negligence, your client’s injuries, permanence, the preponderance of the evidence, damages, and proximate cause. Additionally, Capozzi explains how to set up your case presuit and during the discovery process to collect the facts and evidence that you’ll ultimately use at trial to prove your case.
Over the course of 48 chapters, Capozzi shares insights and ways to successfully approach the following issues and more:
- Interrogatories
- Depositions (including the discovery deposition of a defense medical expert)
- Defense medical exams
- Settlement and mediation
- The pretrial exchange
- Going to trial
- Opening statement
- Common soft-tissue injuries
- Damages in opening statement
- Direct examination of the plaintiff
- Direct examination of the plaintiff’s physicians
- Proving economic damages and past and future medical bills
- Using demonstrative evidence to prove medical damages
- How to effectively use objective medical evidence
- Cross-examining defense medical experts (including preparation, qualifications, and using medical literature and the expert’s prior reports)
- The verdict sheet
- Summation
- Demonstrations for auto accidents, premises liability, minor impact soft-tissue cases, damages, proving negligence against a trucking company, and cases with multiple acts of negligence
In The Domino Theory, Capozzi presents a robust framework for practicing trial law, humanizing each case, and building credibility to keep the jury invested. With discussions and examples on soft-tissue injury, car accident, medical malpractice, premises liability, and trucking cases, Capozzi provides a detailed method for obtaining just settlements and winning verdicts for your clients.
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Foreword
Introduction
1. You
2. Your Client
3. Customize the Case
4. Collecting the Dominos
5. Interrogatories
6. Depositions
7. Defense Medical Exams
8. Discovery Deposition of the Defense Medical Expert
9. Settlement and Mediation Packages
10. The Pretrial Exchange
11. Going to Trial
12. Opening Statement
13. Discussing the Accident and Treatment in Opening Statement
14. The Elements
15. A Preponderance of the Evidence
16. Common Soft-Tissue Injuries
17. The Diagnosis
18. Soldiers and Tanks
19. Damages in Opening Statement
20. Proving the Plaintiff’s Case
21. Direct Examination of the Plaintiff
22. Direct Examination of the Plaintiff’s Physicians
23. Proving Economic Damages: Loss of Earnings
24. Proving Past and Future Medical Bills
25. Using Demonstrative Evidence to Prove Medical Damages
26. Objective Medical Evidence
27. Preparing to Cross-Examine the Defense Medical Expert
28. Cross-Examining the Defense Medical Expert’s Qualifications
29. A Reasonable Degree of Medical Probability: Cross-Examining Defense Medical Experts
30. The Collateral Attack: Cross-Examining Defense Medical Experts
31. Cross-Examination of a Defense Dentist
32. Cross-Examining Medical Experts with the Literature
33. Cross-Examining the Defense Medical Expert with Their Own Prior Expert Reports
34. The Verdict Sheet
35. Summation
36. Picasso and Damages
37. Disproving the Defendant’s Case
38. Adding Pre-Negligence Dominos to Disprove the Defendant’s Case
39. Making Dominos for Your Case
40. Domino Theory Demonstration One: Auto Accident
41. Domino Theory Demonstration Two: Auto Accident Including Damages
42. Domino Theory Demonstration Three: Premises Liability
43. Domino Theory Demonstration Four: Proving Proximate Cause of Lost Wages
44. Domino Theory Demonstration Five: Minor Impact Soft Tissue Cases
45. Proving Negligence against a Trucking Company
46. Proving Proximate Cause with Two Consecutive Acts of Negligence.
47. Domino Theory Demonstration Six: Two Consecutive Acts of Negligence
48. The Agony of Defeat
Appendix
Acknowledgements
About the Author
What Legal Leaders Are Saying
— David Ball, trial consultant and author of David Ball on DamagesThis second edition is not just a cosmetic makeover; it’s justified and necessary. Along the way of expanding its use to every element of trial, Ed shares his other methods with which he gets his frequent and enviable verdicts. And as you read what he’s done, you’ll find yourself thinking up your own new ways to use them. Dominos will even help you evaluate cases before deciding whether to take them, as well as demonstrate the persuasive power of your case in mediations and negotiations, and also help bring your clients onto your wavelength regarding settlement decisions and other tricky issues. […] Regardless of if you’re a beginner or an experienced master, Ed’s domino theory will better shape the logic and motivation with which jurors frame the key parts of your case. And in deliberations, it arms jurors to fight for you without folding.
— Patrick Malone, member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, coauthor of Rules of the Road, author of The Fearless Cross-ExaminerEd Capozzi found an ingenious way to drain the verbal swamp of proximate cause and make the concept as clear and easy for the jury as a row of falling dominos. The proof of its merit is that it seems so obvious in hindsight. I said to myself, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’—the mark of a really good idea.
— Rodney Jew, litigation strategistAn engaging book about proximate cause. With The Domino Theory, Ed Capozzi gives you tips and insight on how to come up with bold strategies for demonstrating this confusing jury issue.
— Michael Maggiano, past president of the New Jersey Association for Justice and the Melvin Belli Society, member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and fellow of the American College of Trial LawyersToo many well-tried plaintiff cases have been lost because of juror confusion over what proximate cause means. With brilliant simplicity, Ed Capozzi presents an intuitive and logical approach that allows jurors to hear and see how the accident cause connects to the injury evidence, enabling them to ‘get it.’ And the book is something far more than that. It is a plaintiff lawyer’s roadmap to success. Ed takes the reader through a methodology that, if followed faithfully, will bring success beyond imagination. I have been trying personal injury cases for forty-two years, and Ed brings a rarely encountered wisdom to so-called ‘garden variety’ soft-tissue cases. Once you adopt and practice the domino theory, you will never ever call a soft-tissue case ‘garden variety’ again, and nor will your adversaries.
— John Romano, past president of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, the Southern Trial Lawyers Association, and the National Trial Lawyers AssociationEd Capozzi’s The Domino Theory is the ultimate set of builders’ plans and specifications on how to prevail on the most vital issues in every personal injury case. It is a masterpiece of winning advocacy. This book will help every plaintiff’s attorney maximize the result for his or her client. It is such a fun and interesting read. Every lawyer in our firm will have this book—it is a practitioner’s manual on how to get it done! Ed’s writing makes for such a practical and easy-to-understand guidebook on practices, steps, principles, and more. The chapter-by-chapter “Takeaways” are steppingstones to victory. This book is a must for every trial lawyer’s library!