Trial by Agreement

From Forbes: "Litigator Pushes Mutual-Disarmament Pacts To Cut Costs," which is about Houston lawyer Steve Susman--

He’s built a website, Trial by Agreement, that provides a sort of 0pen-source repository of pre-trial agreements that lawyers can use to reduce the often needless expense of electronic discovery, depositions and tit-for-tat motions. Susman himself has used these agreements for years, including in a 2009 trial that resulted in a $179 million jury verdict for his clients against billionaire Harold Simmons and his NL Industries. He wants lawyers to download them for free, modify them, and adopt them as a way to speed up trials and hopefully slow the shift toward arbitration and other less costly ways of settling fights.

I orginally saw the link at Overlawyered. When I return from Argentina, I'm going to study Susman's website very closely . . .

Comments

[Ron Miller]

I wrote a post about it. I don't think it is very practical for most personal injury cases because defense lawyers don't spend a lot of time thinking outside of the box on those cases, largely because they don't have the authority to do so.

[marc]

I've noticed this happening more and more to save time and money