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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    June 01, 2000

    Wisconsin Lawyer June 2000: Book Reviews

     

    Wisconsin Lawyer: June 2000

    Vol. 73, No. 6, June 2000

    Book Reviews


    This Month's Featured Selections


    Reading People Reading People: How to Understand
    People and Predict Their Behavior -
    Anytime, Anyplace

    By Jo-Ellan Dimitrius & Mark Mazzarella
    (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1999).
    295 pgs. $11.16.

    Reviewed by Michael A. Coffino

    With its air-brushed author's photo and cocksure subtitle, Reading People has the unmistakable look of a self-help book. Like many such books, it has dual authors, one a personality, the other a writer. In this case, the personality is Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, a well-known jury consultant in Los Angeles who helped pick juries in the Rodney King, John DuPont, McMartin Preschool, and O.J. Simpson cases. Indeed, Reading People would be little more than that were it not for Dimitrius's colorful anecdotes drawn from her trial experiences. These entertaining examples go a long way toward redeeming a book which is otherwise filled with such banalities as the authors' advice that one should always keep a clean car because you can tell a lot about a person from the condition of her automobile.

    The premise of Reading People is that from a person's dress, demeanor, grooming, or background, we can decipher personality traits that indicate how he or she might decide a legal case. To Dimitrius, who works primarily with criminal defense lawyers, there are clues to be found in designer eyeglasses, well-worn shoes, the odd colloquialism, even a small bruise. One of her anecdotes is about a juror in the O.J. Simpson trial who was dismissed after Dimitrius noticed a bruise on her face and the juror admitted being beaten by her boyfriend. Another concerns the amusingly misinterpreted testimony of a Wyoming rancher who observed that a certain disheveled woman looked as though "she'd been rode hard and put away wet."

    But the book's next step - ascribing social significance to such idiosyncrasies and venturing surmises about their pre-dictive power - relies far too much on stereotypes and easy truths. In one typical passage, Dimitrius writes that "long beards and mustaches may reveal liberal political leanings." In another she offers the unflinching conclusion that "by comparing someone's tone of voice with both body language and words, you can usually determine his or her true emotions."

    Dimitrius frequently reminds us that in her line of work, decisions about who will sit on a jury can have life or death consequences. True, jury selection is a critical part of a trial. But it is presumptuous to think that with a few tricks prospective jurors can be reduced to categories.

    The best parts of Reading People are its improbably juxtaposed stories. Discussing her reliance on intuition, Dimitrius tosses off at one point, "one of the most memorable occasions was the trial of an English cabdriver accused of killing four people, whose bodies were never found." In the end, these asides are far more illuminating of the book's various people-reading points than are its exhaustive lists and endless truisms about the importance of being observative.

    Michael Coffino, U.W. 1994, is an intellectual property lawyer with Donahue, Gallagher, Woods & Wood in Oakland, Calif.

    Punitive Damages and Business Torts: A Practitioner's Guide

    Thomas J. Collin, Editor
    (Chicago, IL: ABA Antitrust Law Section, 1998).
    206 pgs. $89. Order, (800) 285-2221.

    Reviewed by Douglas O. Smith

    Law school is not the place to learn the law. Law students learn how to find the law, and if they are lucky, they begin to think like lawyers. Once in practice, lawyers must discover what the law is in the context of the particular kinds of legal work they are doing. One of the best ways to do that is to find a secondary reference that outlines the basics of the particular area of law; gives citations to other secondary sources, law review articles, and seminal cases; and shows the reader what issues are really important and should be explored on behalf of their clients.

    Punitive Damages and Business Torts is the prototype for what lawyers need to have when venturing into an area of law in which they are less than completely expert. Commercial litigators and contract lawyers of all types will benefit from the analysis of an area that often seems, to those of us who do not do this work regularly, without rules. The handbook covers the nature and origin of punitive damages, the standards courts use to determine liability for punitive damages, the criteria courts use to determine the measure of punitive damages, bifurcation as a procedural tool in punitive damage cases, expert witnesses, judicial review, and even the tax implications of punitive damages. Each area is covered concisely, but the important issues and principles are all addressed.

    Two features of the writing are especially useful to practitioners. First, the footnotes are copious, dealing with applicable statutes, majority and minority rules, prominent cases, and useful secondary sources. Second, two different appendices provide a discussion of "representative cases" that combine tort and antitrust claims seeking punitive damages, and then a state-by-state review of the availability of punitive damages, whether the state receives a share of the award, statutory caps, availability of bifurcation, and the standard of proof that applies to the award of punitive damages. Between the footnotes and the appendices, research in this area should be focused and efficient.

    Billed as "a compact guide to the principles and practice of punitive damages in business litigation," this handbook provides both the basics and the tools necessary to learn the details in a well-organized and easily understood way. The 15 contributors know their area of practice and write straightforwardly, and the editing makes it seem as if it is really a book, with a single theme and approach, rather than a collection of essays. Lawyers who deal with punitive damages claims will save time and serve their clients well if they have and use this book before they give advice or undertake to make or to defend a claim for punitive damages. Learning the law should always be this easy.

    Douglas O. Smith, Marquette 1983, is a principal and shareholder of General
    Counsel S.C., Brookfield.

    Trial Practice Wisconsin Trial Practice

    By R. George Burnett, Gregory B. Conway, Frank T. Crivello, Merrick R. Domnitz, Mark R. Feldmann, James M. Fredericks, David G. Hanson, Michael J. Hogan, Robert L. Jaskulski, Dean E. Mabie, Robert L. McCracken, John D. Murray, Anna M. Pepelnjak, Hon. Jacqueline D. Schellinger, Thomas P. Schwaba, Keith R. Stachowiak, John R. Teetaert, Susan R. Tyndall, Hon. Lee E. Wells, William R. Wick, and Alyson K. Zierdt (Madison, WI: State Bar CLE Books, 1999). 585+ pgs. $145.

    Reviewed by Thomas H. Boyd

    Order It Online Now!

    Wisconsin Trial Practice provides a well-balanced combination of scholarship, experience, and research and keeps in focus the practical application of the information presented. This objective has been achieved through the efforts of an outstanding group of attorneys and judges who authored and edited this manual.

    The book is divided into 15 discrete chapters organized chronologically and spanning from the preparation for trial through jury selection, opening statements, presentation of evidence and examination of witnesses, closing arguments, jury instructions, verdicts, and the entry of judgment. This comprehensive book also contains separate chapters dealing with trial objections and preserving the record for appeal, jury management, motion practice during and following the trial, and bench trials.

    These chapters are authored by distinguished Wisconsin attorneys and complemented by judicial commentary from a host of experienced trial and appellate court judges. Each chapter contains helpful checklists that summarize the material and supply useful aids for accomplishing the detailed tasks, and valuable and insightful practice tips. The combination of formats provides an effective blend of basic information with savvy insight to communicate effective methods for practice and presentation before Wisconsin state trial courts.

    Wisconsin Trial Practice is an invaluable book on trial practice. Whether new or experienced, any attorney trying cases in Wisconsin state court will find this book an extremely useful tool. This guide is the perfect companion volume to Wisconsin Civil Procedures Before Trial, and related forms can be found in the Wisconsin Civil Litigation Forms Manual, both also published by State Bar CLE Books.

    Thomas H. Boyd, Iowa 1987, practices with Winthrop & Weinstine PA in Saint Paul, Minn.

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