Taught from trials, not treatises
Every module comes out of a fight that actually happened in a courtroom: what was offered, what was said, what the court did, and what would have worked better.
The craft of trying cases
Know the rule. Then know what to do with it.
Four courses on evidence, depositions, experts, and taking a business case to verdict, taught by a lawyer who is still in trial. Sixteen MCLE credits. One membership.
$99 a month, or $990 a year. All four courses. Cancel anytime.
Trial Lawyer of the Year, The Trial Lawyers
Top 50 Super Lawyers, Orange County
Seven- and eight-figure verdicts, plaintiff and defense
Why this exists
Most evidence training stops at the rule.
You can recite section 1271 from memory and still lose the exhibit. Mastery is not knowledge of the code. It is knowing which objection is coming, what foundation answers it, and what to say in the four seconds after the judge looks up.
Built for the moment it happens
Foundation elements in the order you lay them. Objections in the order they arrive. Language you can use standing up, not a memo you would have to translate first.
Both sides of the caption
David tries cases for plaintiffs and for defendants, and has won as both. The courses teach the argument and the answer to it, because you will need both.
The membership
One pass. Four courses. Sixteen credits.
Everything on this site, other than the book, is included. Start anywhere, finish in any order, keep access for as long as you are a member.
California Evidence 101
The Evidence Code in the order it comes up at trial: relevance, foundation, authentication, opinion, and writings.
4 MCLE
Deposition Skills Clinic
Building the record you will need at summary judgment and at trial, and the outline that lets you leave it.
4 MCLE
Expert Witness Academy
Foundation and gatekeeping, the hypothetical question, and the cross that survives a redirect.
4 MCLE
Business Trial Academy
From a year out to verdict: organizing the case, the opening, the evidence, and the close.
4 MCLE
Member library
The Rules of Evidence cheat sheet, evidentiary updates, witness preparation materials, and new lessons as they are recorded.
Ongoing
Annual · two months free
$990a year
$82.50 a month, billed once. That is $198 less than paying monthly.
Join annually- Both plans include all four courses and all sixteen credits
- 30-day satisfaction guarantee
- Any single course is $499, once
- Firm and team access, ask us
The courses
Four problems, four courses.
Each one is built around a problem you already have. Buy one on its own, or take all four inside the membership.
California Evidence 101
You know the code exists. You have never read it in the order a trial actually uses it. This is that reading, section by section, with the objection each one answers.
Deposition Skills Clinic
A deposition is not discovery. It is the record you will read to the jury. Preparation, outlining, business records, and the admissions you need before you sit down.
Expert Witness Academy
Most expert crosses fail on foundation, not on facts. Gatekeeping, hypotheticals, the reliability challenge, and the impeachment that holds up.
Business Trial Academy
The transition from litigating a case to trying one. Three hundred sixty-five days out, ninety days out, thirty days out, and then verdict.
§ The book
New
The phase of trial nobody teaches.
Picked to Win is 214 pages on jury selection: the psychology without the nonsense, the mechanics of voir dire, and how to spend six peremptories like a budget instead of a reflex.
Forty-six diagrams, four appendices of question banks, checklists and worksheets, and the same standard as the courses. Every method in it runs on paper.
PDF, 214 pages. Delivered by Payhip, stamped to you. Also on juryboard.com.
Results
2025, on both sides of the caption.
Three verdicts in one year, two for the defense and one for the plaintiff. The point is not the numbers. It is that the person teaching this is still doing it.
| When | Role | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2025 Beverly Hills |
Defense | Defense verdict, 12–0, in under two hours
Alleged partnership dispute; plaintiff advanced a damages model reaching $100 million. |
|
| Jun 2025 Orange County |
Plaintiff | $8,685,192
Sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation. Liability on all claims. |
|
| Feb 2025 Orange County |
Defense | Complete defense verdict, unanimous
loanDepot; three-week trial on sexual harassment and constructive discharge. |
Start free
Three things you can use this week.
No card, no trial period to remember to cancel. Take these, and decide about the membership afterward.
01
Rules of Evidence cheat sheet
One page. Foundation elements and the objection each one answers, in the order they come up.
02
Sargon v. USC training
A full lesson on expert gatekeeping, worked through the case that governs it in California.
03
Picked to Win, chapter one
The real first chapter of the book, thirty-two pages, not a marketing excerpt.
One email a week. Unsubscribe from any of them.
The short version
David Sugden
A trial lawyer and shareholder at Call & Jensen in Newport Beach, trying high-stakes cases to verdict for plaintiffs and for defendants. He founded Evidence at Trial, where he teaches the four courses on this site, wrote Picked to Win, and built JuryBoard.
Everything here comes out of that practice. The courses are recorded between trials, not instead of them.
- PracticeBusiness, employment, trade secret and intellectual property trials, nationally
- BarAdmitted in California, New York, and Texas
- FellowshipMember, American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)
- RecognitionTop 50 Super Lawyers in Orange County
- RecognitionTrial Lawyer of the Year, The Trial Lawyers · Daily Journal Top 20 Attorneys Under 40
- 2025Two complete defense verdicts and an $8.7 million plaintiff’s verdict
- BooksPicked to Win (2026)
From members
What lawyers say after using this.
“After 22 years in the trenches as a litigator, I was impressed by how much I learned from David Sugden’s Evidence 101 and Deposition Skills Clinic … focused on the evidence concepts attorneys need to recall and apply immediately during depositions and at trial.”
Stewart Albertson · Albertson & Davidson · Carlsbad
“I love your videos. I have been an attorney for 45 years and have won numerous multi-million dollar judgments … I feel like I am learning so much from watching these videos.”
Nathan Goldberg · Allred, Maroko & Goldberg · Los Angeles
“I don’t think words could encapsulate the relief, clarity, and confidence I obtained from this class.”
Aric Williams · Law Offices of Aric N. Williams · Carlsbad
Trial counsel
Have a trial date?
David is retained as trial counsel and as co-counsel on cases that are going to verdict, for plaintiffs and for defendants. If you have a date on the calendar, start the conversation early.
Start here
Take the free lesson. Decide after.
The cheat sheet, the Sargon training, and the first chapter of the book cost nothing and take an afternoon. If they are useful, the membership is $99 and you can cancel it from your account.
