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Polarizing the Case: Exposing & Defeating the Malingering Myth
Polarizing the Case from Trial Guides on Vimeo.
Polarizing the Case is the #3 book of all time at Trial Guides, just behind Rules of the Road and David Ball on Damages. It has been called "the bible for anyone trying cases in today's climate" by legendary trial lawyer Brian Panish.
With Rules of the Road, Rick Friedman (with co-author Patrick Malone) changed the way tens of thousands of plaintiff's lawyers try their cases. In the process, he established himself as one of the nation's leading tacticians in the battle for civil justice. With Polarizing the Case, Friedman teaches us not to fear allegations or insinuations that our client is malingering or exaggerating injuries.
Polarizing the Case is split into two parts. Part one discusses the Polarizing method. This method is critical in any type of personal injury case where the defense will infer that your client is either faking or exaggerating their injuries. Instead of saying the client is lying, the defense witnesses will say the client is "malingering" (a conscious decision to fake or exaggerate symptoms) or that the client has either "somatoform disorder" or "somatization disorder" (both unconscious forms of faking and exaggerating symptoms). These allegations are almost always an intentional decision by the defense witness to mislead jurors when the injured
Polarizing the Case is the #3 book of all time at Trial Guides, just behind Rules of the Road and David Ball on Damages. It has been called "the bible for anyone trying cases in today's climate" by legendary trial lawyer Brian Panish.
With Rules of the Road, Rick Friedman (with co-author Patrick Malone) changed the way tens of thousands of plaintiff's lawyers try their cases. In the process, he established himself as one of the nation's leading tacticians in the battle for civil justice. With Polarizing the Case, Friedman teaches us not to fear allegations or insinuations that our client is malingering or exaggerating injuries.
Polarizing the Case is split into two parts. Part one discusses the Polarizing method. This method is critical in any type of personal injury case where the defense will infer that your client is either faking or exaggerating their injuries. Instead of saying the client is lying, the defense witnesses will say the client is "malingering" (a conscious decision to fake or exaggerate symptoms) or that the client has either "somatoform disorder" or "somatization disorder" (both unconscious forms of faking and exaggerating symptoms). These allegations are almost always an intentional decision by the defense witness to mislead jurors when the injured
- GenresLaw
356 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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October 16, 2025
This is a book for plaintiff-side trial attorneys. It's a trial practice book specifically about the idea that defense attorneys want to imply that an injured plaintiff is malingering (i.e., pretending their injuries are worse than they really are, milking it, etc.), but often don't want to come out and say that's what they think. The author recommends ways to force the defense to take a stand--are you calling the plaintiff a malingerer or not?
There were some helpful techniques here, and generally the idea of making sure that the defense has to take a stand on their story was helpful. Rick Friedman has written several helpful trial manuals and he uses some real transcripts to help make his points. Overall, worth the interlibrary loan to get a chance to review this one.
There were some helpful techniques here, and generally the idea of making sure that the defense has to take a stand on their story was helpful. Rick Friedman has written several helpful trial manuals and he uses some real transcripts to help make his points. Overall, worth the interlibrary loan to get a chance to review this one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review