Too many good folks believe “the law” is on their side but don’t know there are two (2) kinds of law!

If you don’t know both kinds you lose needlessly.

Most losers never know why they lost. They blame the judge. They blame the justice system. They blame the party on the other side. They rarely blame themselves for assuming they knew all they needed to know.

There are two (2) kinds of law!

The first kind is “substantive law”. Law that determines the outcome of a case based on admissible evidence.

The second kind we call “procedural law”. Rules of court that determine what evidence will be admitted, who gets to talk, what issues will be heard, etc.

Losers rush into court demanding the judge to enforce substantive law in their favor, but they don’t know the first thing about the rules of court or how to use them to get their way.

It’s like holding a winning hand in a game of cards but not knowing how to tactically apply the rules of the game to win.

It doesn’t matter if you have “the law on your side” if you don’t know how to use the rules of court to win.

Those who know how to use the rules tactically win consistently!

Those who don’t lose consistently!

Do you want to win … or lose?

Your choice.

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You must understand who has the burden of proof … and why it matters!

If you’re being sued, the other side has the burden of proof.

If the other side files a motion, they have the burden of proof.

But, sometimes the burden shifts back-and-forth.

Knowing who has the burden is critical.

Don’t be victimized by lawyers tricking you into thinking the burden is yours, making you struggle to “disprove” a fact or the application of law … when the burden is not on you!

The burden is always on the party asserting a fact or law to prove what he asserts.

It’s never your job to disprove what he asserts!

In more than 28 years as a case-winning lawyer, I’ve won many cases simply by forcing the court to require my opponent to “put up or shut up”.

Think how this can be applied to foreclosure or credit card cases! A credit lender asserts his alleged debtor owes, and far too often the alleged debtor spins his wheels trying prove he doesn’t owe … instead of forcing the creditor to prove what he claims or be dismissed!

Knowing how to shift the burden is power to win!

Why be tricked by other members of my profession?

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If you start to offer evidence and, before you can get it before the court, the other side objects and the judge sustains your opponent’s objection, you must move the court to allow you to make clear on the record what your evidence was going to be and what it would tend to prove!

This is making an offer of proof.

Expect your opponent to try to stop you.

Be prepared to make an offer of proof immediately … or risk losing needlessly!

An offer of proof shows the court on the record:

• What the offered evidence is and
• What the evidence tends to prove

Failure to get evidence admitted is fatal!

If you don’t get your evidence admitted and don’t make an offer of proof, you’ll have nothing to appeal if you lose!

If you don’t make an offer of proof, the record will not show the appellate court what the evidence would have been. There’ll be nothing in the record for the appellate court to review! Appellate courts will not examine evidence that wasn’t made part of the record at the trial level.

You can’t introduce evidence for the first time on appeal.

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Know What the Law Says!

One of the biggest case-losing mistakes is mis-reading statutes.

If you don’t know what the law says, you’ll have a devilishly hard time getting a judge to agree with you!

Statutory language must be interpreted according to well-established “rules of statutory interpretation”.

The rules of statutory interpretation are vital to winning your case.

You need to know how courts interpret what the law makers meant when they wrote the law!

Too many “assume” they know what a statute says, but the only opinion that counts is what controlling appellate courts say a statute says.

Appellate courts apply rules of statutory interpretation.

You must learn these rules … if you want to win!

Judges should never be allowed to play games with lawmakers’ words.

Know the rules of statutory interpretation.

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 Need to dodge a lawsuit?

Whether you’re a plaintiff or defendant, you must know what smart defendants do to dodge lawsuits.

If a defendant is served with a complaint, he may dodge the lawsuit by filing motions to avoid filing an Answer!

This is called the “flurry of motions”.

Once a defendant files an Answer, he’s locked in and misses this chance to dodge the lawsuit altogether.

Don’t file an Answer if you can dodge the lawsuit with a “flurry of motions”.

Inexperienced lawyers and pro se people make the avoidable mistake of filing an Answer to plaintiff’s Complaint … instead of using the flurry of motions.

• Motion to Dismiss
• Motion to Strike
• Motion for More Definite Statement

Each of these motions postpones the necessity of filing an Answer to the Complaint … and gains you valuable time and evidence-gathering opportunities!

In some cases it puts an end to the case. Period!

Failure to use the Flurry of Motions weakens your case.

Know how to use the Flurry of Motions.

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Do you know how to win before trial?

Lawyers drag out cases so they can bill for more time.

Many refuse to do things “the right way” so they can avoid trial, because they make more money if they can take their clients’ cases all-the-way to the bitter, knock-down, drag-out bitter end at trial.

Do you hold winning cards (law and facts)?

Then you can win before trial!

1. There is no evidence you cannot get in before trial.
2. There are no witnesses you cannot question under oath before trial.
3. There are no documents or things you cannot get in before trial.
4. There are no legal arguments you cannot make before trial.
5. There is nothing going to happen at trial that cannot be made to happen before trial.

The “trying” of your case with the first pleading and continues with discovery and motions before trial.

Common reasons cases go to trial are:

1. Lazy lawyer who didn’t do the pre-trial work he could have done.
2. Stupid lawyer who didn’t know how to do the pre-trial work he could have done.
3. Greedy lawyer who didn’t want to do the pre-trial work he could have done.
4. No lawyer and no idea how to do the pre-trial work that could have been done.

Don’t wait for trial to win!

A few reasons why are:

1. Trial is uncertain, especially with unpredictable juries and corrupt judges.
2. Trial is “think on your feet” with opponent trying to throw you off with objections.
3. Trial is a nasty battle against lawyers’ willing to cheat if they can.
4. Trial is a last bite at the apple, with no take backs and no retreats.

Win before trial!

There are no questions you can ask at a trial that you cannot ask before trial using interrogatories, requests for admissions, depositions, and subpoenas.

There are no documents or things you can bring to trial that you cannot get into the trial record before trial using requests for production, subpoenas, and depositions duce tecum.

There are no legal arguments you can make at trial that you cannot make more effectively and more powerfully before trial using the online legal research and carefully drafted memoranda.

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Don’t end up like this poor fellow!

Here he is in the heat of trial.

He’s trying to offer documents he’s been counting on to win his case.

He’s trying to present them for the first time on the day of the trial.

Big mistake!

His documents can do nothing unless and until they are admitted as “admissible evidence”.

He will lose … needlessly!

He thought he’d be tricky and surprise his opponents.

He hid his “evidence”, waiting till the last minute to “spring it” on his opponent at trial, hoping it would be too late for his opponent to respond effectively.

Bad idea!

Ambush rarely works at trial … no matter what you see on TV or in the movies.

If you don’t get your evidence in before trial, you’ll likely not get it in at all.

Then you will lose … needlessly!

Why not be prepared?

You only get one bite at the trial apple.

Why wait till trial to test evidence for admissibility.

Never trust what a witness promises she will say.

Never trust that a document will be admitted … even if it’s sealed with royal wax imprinted by a king’s ring and draped with silk ribbons.

If you assume you have “evidence” to spring on your opponent at trial, you are playing a dangerous game, risking everything for no advantage whatever.

If you wait to present “secret evidence” at trial, you’re betting on the wrong horse!

Evidence that isn’t admitted isn’t evidence!

Authenticate before trial.

Learn how at How to Win in Court

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Think about this question … think really, really hard and long!

What is your goal?

Impress the judge?

Confuse the opponent?

Or, win the case?

Everything we do in life has in one sense or another a particular goal. Some things we do are automatic, like breathing, yet there is always a goal.

In business, the goal is to provide a benefit to others that they will want to pay for.

In sports, the goal is to perform to the highest of our athletic ability.

In law, the goal is to achieve certain well defined benchmarks!

Here is where most lawyers and nearly all pro se people miss the boat … they get sidetracked!

Every word, spoken in the courtroom or written on paper filed with the clerk and served on the other side, must aim toward a specific goal.

Any words not aimed at the goal must go!

Most of what I’ve seen from pro se people (and quite a bit from the dozens of lawyers I had to deal with since 1986 when I first started as a licensed attorney) read more like a long-winded story.

Legal writing is NOT “story-telling”!

Every word has a purpose.

Any word that can do nothing substantial to achieve the goal (which is winning, by the way) must go.

Say what needs saying and stop!

Aim every word at your goal.

You don’t need a “novelist’s eye” or a “bartender’s ear”, like Jimmy Buffett.

You’re assembling the parts of a powerful engine.

Learn how at HowToWinInCourt

Want to drive your opponents nuts?

Tie them down with word-power!

What you’ll learn will empower you to stuff your opponents in a word-box and win your case hands-down!

Most pro se people never understand this … so they lose, needlessly.

Many lawyers never understand this … so they also lose, needlessly … and take their client’s money anyway!

Short sentences.

Powerful sentences.

Sentences with ONE VERB.

Sentences with ONE SUBJECT.

One subject. One verb. And only the absolutely necessary adjectives and adverbs.

If it’s important to say your opponent’s nose was gigantic, say so. Otherwise, leave it out!

Each sentence is a complete thought.

Mrs. Edgerton taught me that in Second Grade, and it’s helped me win countless court battles.

Winning in court is all about effective communication.

The “How to Win in Court” course will show you how!

The Wild Wild West was won by a few folks clever enough to establish “Law & Order” in the unsettled wilds west of the Mississippi by bringing along:

• A thoroughly-read Bible,
• A Colt revolver and Winchester rifle,
• A good horse and well-provisioned wagon, and
• A sturdy copy of Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England

England, did you say?

Yup!

In that single book (you can get a Kindle or Nook version for free) written before our Declaration of Independence, those early settlers found enough common-sense law to jail bandits, hang rustlers, and open the way for railroads and booming towns and cities … impossible without law and order.

Contrary to what you see on TV, it wasn’t faster guns or bigger fists that settled lawless towns like Tombstone and Dodge City. It was the support of local townsfolk who wanted law and order. People who believed in the principles of Justice found in those two books: the Bible and Blackstone. People with courage to put an end to lawlessness.

Yet today we face a new threat lawlessness!

It may be a bank using fraud to foreclose.

It may be a corrupt business partner, ex-spouse, or next-door neighbor out-of-control.

For many it’s the threat of government officials refusing to follow the law – tax collectors, police officers, and corrupt judges who break the law to allow fraud to reign free in their courts as lawyers rape people who do not know “How to Win in Court”.

When “the law” becomes outlaw, there’s only one remedy.

People who know how to use the Rules!

The Rules of Evidence that control all civil and criminal proceedings in state and federal courts comprise less than 30 pages in the official rule books?

The Rules of Procedure that control all civil and criminal proceedings in state and federal courts comprise less than 60 pages in the official rule books?

You can use those rules to control every judge, every lawyer, every bank, every giant corporation, your next door neighbor, a business partner, and every state and federal agency trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

Solve your legal problems today the same way western settlers brought lawlessness to its knees in the Wild West more than a century ago … learn the Rules!

Justice is Yours for the Taking!

Protect yourself children from lawless legal officials, scheming bankers, incompetent doctors, rival siblings, and anyone else who seeks to do you harm.

If a fraudulent lender, bill collector, tax man, corrupt judge, crooked lawyer, or anyone else uses unlawful force to deprive you or your family of your rights, teach them a lesson!

That’s how the West was won!

Learn now at How to Win in Court

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