Books about Lawsuits from Amazon.com

An excellent guidebook for healthcare professionals preparing themselves to defend against malpractice lawsuits at a time when one in four doctors can be expected to be sued. Well-written, instructional, timely and practical, it is a solid primer that gives the doctor or nurse a strong edge in the tricky, adversarial arena of malpractice litigation. This book is a "must have" for defendant doctors and an invaluable resource for every practicing healthcare professional. Don't go to a deposition or to court without reading this book..
Price: $24.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Although 25% of all physicians are sued for medical malpractice each year and 65% of all physicians are sued sometime during their careers, most medical malpractice claims can easily be prevented by following seven simple rules. This concise reference manual clearly yet succinctly shows physicians and physicians-in-training how to avoid malpractice claims, explaining in simple terms the basic strategies to preventing claims before they ever begin. Written by an expert medical malpractice defense attorney--who teaches malpractice prevention techniques at medical schools, teaching hospitals and medical centers across the country--and edited by a team of physicians, Physician, Protect Thyself is endorsed by physicians at Harvard, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown and Colorado, to name a few. Recommended reading for every physician, resident, fellow, intern and medical student, following Physician, Protect Thyself's suggestions will definitely result in the reduction of malpractice claims..
Price: $15.29 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Author Philip K. Howard returns with the same storytelling style and supreme reasonableness that made his first book, The Death of Common Sense, such a smash hit in 1995. He begins The Lost Art of Drawing the Line by noting the damage predatory litigation has done to the communal fabric of the United States: "Social relations in America, far from steadied by law's sure hand, are a tangle of frayed legal nerves." He tells how seesaws have started to vanish from playgrounds, how teachers are banned from touching students, and how emergency-room staff are blocked from attending to patients off hospital grounds--even if they can see them bleeding to death just 30 feet away. These aren't just speculations, a parade of hypothetical horror stories--they are actual trends and events that Howard describes and documents. The ability to weave dozens of anecdotes like these into his narrative is one of Howard's great strengths, and it allows him to make important points in entertaining ways.

Yet the book is much more than a collection of outrageous stories or a mere broadside against the legal system--though the legal system does come in for plenty of criticism. Instead, it's a meditation on the meaning of freedom, why freedom cannot exist outside of authority, and why individuals in positions of authority should have the ability to make decisions based on sound judgment. There is a temptation to secure liberty by restricting authority through the law, but this can be overdone, and it carries a high price: "Put law or any other formal construct in the middle of daily dealings, and people will start looking to the law instead of to one another." Then things get much worse: "The more our common institutions fail us, the more Americans want to limit their authority. Through a downward cycle of distrust, legal controls, [and] worse failure ... we drive Americans' governing institutions further into the bureaucratic maw." That is a terrible place to be, where no one is held accountable and antisocial behavior rules. And it has nothing at all to do with freedom. --John J. Miller.
Price: $3.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Represent yourself in California Superior Court for a case worth up to $25,000!

Some cases are too big for small claims court and too small to interest a lawyer. But Win Your Lawsuit takes you step by step through the entire process of a limited jurisdiction case in California Superior Court.

Take on common types of civil court cases worth up to $25,000, including:

contract disputes

personal injuries

property damage cases

business disputes

Whether you're bringing the suit or defending against one, this plain-English legal guide shows you how to prepare a complaint, file and serve papers, participate in settlement negotiations, present a case and much more. The 3rd edition is completely updated and provides all the forms you need.

Written by Roderic Duncan, a retired California Superior Court judge, this book includes the legal insight and practical tips that only a judge with over 25 years of experience can provide..
Price: $22.40 [Notify me when price goes down.]

At age 12, Shirley Wilder ran away from an abusive home and landed in New York City's foster-care system. By age 13, she was named the plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that challenged the city's 150-year-old system as unconstitutional At 14, Shirley gave birth to a son, Lamont, who was soon swept up in the same system. This absorbing account by New York Times reporter Nina Bernstein follows the threads of the tragic lives of Shirley and Lamont Wilder and the lawsuit that bears their name. In the process it illuminates the city's--and the nation's--dysfunctional social welfare system and its impact on the children it purportedly helps.

The Wilder lawsuit was filed in 1973 by a passionate young lawyer who stuck by it through 26 years of litigation, without the case ever being fully resolved. The accusation: that New York City's system violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments for giving private religious agencies control of publicly financed foster-care beds. These mostly Catholic and Jewish agencies gave preference to white Catholic and Jewish children, while the growing numbers of black and Protestant children were sent to inappropriate institutions that left them with more problems than they had when they came. Such was the fate of Shirley, who, for lack of anywhere else to go, was placed in Hudson, a state reformatory for delinquents with no treatment services for abandoned or abused children. Hudson "looked like a camp from the outside and was unmistakably a prison within." There was rampant violence and sexual abuse, and girls were regularly punished by being put in "the hole," a 5-by-8-foot cell with no windows, furniture, or heat, which Shirley would later testify was like "Winter. Winter--all year round." But a case that named state and city officials, 77 voluntary agencies and their directors, and 84 individual defendants including nuns, rabbis, and clergymen, and that threatened to pit blacks and Jews against each other, was a case destined to enter a legal wilderness of avoidance and delay.

Shirley and Lamont's unforgettable stories reveal the deep fault lines in a system that often does more harm than good. While reforms come and go with little success, Bernstein makes clear that the child welfare system will never really change until there is a coming to terms with the system's place as "a political battleground for abiding national conflicts over race, religion, gender and inequality" and the "unacknowledged contradictions between policies that punish the 'undeserving poor' and pledge to help all needy children." --Lesley Reed.
Price: $9.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A powerful new argument that right-wing legal policy gives Americans no recourse but to sue one another, by the National Book Critics Circle Award nominee.

Since the dawn of the Reagan era, America's traditional legal structures have been gradually undermined, replaced by a kind of legal rage that has led to an explosion in the number of lawsuits. Why do Americans sue each other as often as we do and how has this basic rift in our civic trust come to pass?

In an impassioned rebuttal to books such as Philip K. Howard's The Death of Common Sense, which argue that liberals have made the United States overly litigious, public-interest lawyer and award-winning author Thomas Geoghegan explains why these books have it backwards. In reality, Geoghegan argues, it is the conservative revolution that opened the floodgates of litigation and helped to spur the lawsuit culture that Howard and others decry. According to Geoghegan, the country's current addiction to litigation and the need to find someone wrong is a natural response to the right's dismantling of America's postwar legal system—a system based on contract, trust, and administrative law, in which it was not necessary to go to court in order to stay solvent, keep your job, or recover from an accident.

Sure to provoke heated debate, See You in Court shows why the right is wrong about the source of our lawsuit culture, and points the way back to civil society..
Price: $12.47 [Notify me when price goes down.]

TRIAL SECRETS OF THE MASTERS! With more than 15 million civil lawsuits filed in the U.S. each year, the odds are high that you will one day find yourself in court particularly if you are in the business world. If it does happen to you, don t assume that all you can do is hire a good lawyer. The truth is, you can arm yourself for battle with the basic tools and sophisticated strategies described in How to Win (& Survive) a Lawsuit. If you want to win, you need to be a tuned-in and active participant. "How to Win (& Survive) a Lawsuit" reveals the secrets to achieving great results as well as tips on what makes the difference between winning and losing in real cases. In this dynamic and insightful book, Robert Dawson, top trial partner at the blue-chip legal powerhouse Fulbright and Jaworski LLP, shares the trial secrets of the masters. He will teach you how to: *Pick (and manage) the right lawyer *Evaluate your case on an ongoing basis *Determine when to settle and when to go to trial *Handle depositions and trial testimony *Give yourself the best chance to win "How to Win (& Survive) a Lawsuit" is a practical guide to the inner workings of our legal system. Empower yourself with the tools you need to give yourself the winning edge!.
Price: $15.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy is arguably the most acute crisis Catholicism has faced since the Reformation. The prevalence of clergy sexual abuse and its shocking cover-up by church officials have obscured the largely untold story of the tort system’s remarkable success in bringing the scandal to light, focusing attention on the need for institutional reform, and spurring church leaders and public officials into action.

Stories of the tort system as an engine of social justice are rare. Holding Bishops Accountable tells one such story by revealing how pleadings, discovery documents, and depositions fueled media coverage of the scandal. Timothy Lytton shows how the litigation strategy of plaintiffs’ lawyers gave rise to a widespread belief that the real problem was not the actions of individual priests but rather the church’s massive institutional failure. The book documents how church and government policymakers responded to the problem of clergy sexual abuse only under the pressure of private lawsuits.

As Lytton deftly demonstrates, the lessons of clergy sexual abuse litigation give us reason to reconsider the case for tort reform and to look more closely at how tort litigation can enhance the performance of public and private policymaking institutions.

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Price: $17.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Gathered from the popular website www.StellaAwards.com, The True Stella Awards is an outrageous collection of AmericaÂ’s most frivolous lawsuits

Named for Stella Liebeck, the woman who won a multimillion-dollar lawsuit after spilling hot McDonald’s coffee on herself, humorist Randy Cassingham’s popular website chronicles the hard-to-believe and amusing claims brought before the U.S.courts. The most ridiculous of these lawsuits are given the “honorable” Stella Award.

In The True Stella Awards, Cassingham documents the most outlandish of these real-life cases, including:
* The man who legally changed his name to Jack Ass, and then sued MTV because their TV show and movie Jackass infringed on his trademark and demeaned his “good name”
* The songwriter who left a minute’s silence on his record only to be sued by the estate of another songwriter who copyrighted his own “silent” song
* The man who sued an amusement park after being the victim of the ultimate “act of God”: He was hit by lightning while standing next to his own car in the parking lot

Stunning and hilarious, The True Stella Awards reveals the extremes people will go to in the pursuit of “justice.”.
Price: $5.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]