Have a trial date?
David Sugden is retained as trial counsel and as co-counsel on cases that are going to verdict, for plaintiffs and for defendants. Most of that work comes from other lawyers, and most of it starts with a date on a calendar and a case that has outgrown the plan.
“Most of us stumble out of schools of law into courts of law. We are not incompetent, but we are untrained.”
Hon. Herbert J. SternA first chair who has done it recently.
Litigating a case and trying one are different jobs, and there is no shame in a firm being excellent at the first without doing the second often enough to be sharp at it. Medicine sorted this out long ago: the referral is not an admission, it is the standard of care.
David joins cases as trial counsel or as co-counsel, most often in the months before a date. The case stays yours. He brings the evidence work, the examinations, and the shape of the presentation — the parts that are hardest to do well while you are also running the file.
He tries cases on both sides, which matters more than it sounds. A lawyer who only ever defends has half a view of what a jury does with a damages argument.
Early is cheap. Late is expensive.
The single most common mistake is waiting until the trial is close enough to be frightening. By then most of the useful choices have already been made for you.
- Six months outThe best time. There is still room to shape the record, fix the expert problem, and decide what the case is actually about.
- Motions in limineA natural point to bring someone in. What you win and lose here decides most of what the jury is allowed to hear.
- An expert you cannot moveWhether the fight is admissibility or cross, this is the most common single reason lawyers write.
- Your first trialNot a disqualification. Sitting second chair to someone doing it properly is the fastest way to stop being untrained.
- Three weeks outLate, but not too late, and it has been done. Expect the conversation to be blunt about what can still be changed.
Three steps, and none of them is a pitch.
You write
Your name, your firm, and a line about what you need. Two sentences is plenty, and no case details yet.
We check conflicts
Before any substantive conversation, and usually within a day or two. Nothing you send is confidential until that is cleared and we say so.
David reads it himself
And answers. If the case does not need trial counsel he will say so, which happens often enough to be worth saying in advance.
Start the conversation.
Your name, your firm, and a line about what you need. Please keep case details out of this first message — we run conflicts before any substantive conversation, and until that is clear nothing you send is privileged.
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Two things worth knowing.
Sending this form does not make David your lawyer and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Conflicts are checked before any substantive conversation, so please do not send confidential case material in the first message.
He also turns work down. Cases that do not need trial counsel, cases where the date is real but the problem is not one he can help with, and cases that conflict. A straight no in week one is worth more to you than a maybe in week six.
