Advocacy with Integrity: Countering Unethical Litigation Tactics

Charles Bennett | Bennett Legal

Charles Bennett is the driving force behind Bennett Legal, a nationally recognized law firm specializing in winning Personal Injury cases. He is one of the nation’s top trial attorneys and consultants. He is invited to speak and teach nationwide, educating lawyers on tactics, tips, and procedures that empower them to take on the insurance companies and get significantly improved results. Charles has secured record-breaking results in a variety of categories, including: Commercial/18-wheeler crashes, wrongful deaths with a specialty in negligent landlord cases, traumatic brain damage cases, motor vehicle crashes, and workplace injuries.

Charles is highly regarded among his peers as a top lawyer in his field. Whenever other trial lawyers face complex cases and need guidance, they turn to Charles Bennett for his expert advice. He has gained extensive knowledge and experience as a principal of Trial Structure LLC, an educational corporation that catered specifically to trial lawyers. He worked on thousands of cases with a diverse range of lawyers across the nation. He is known as the “lawyer’s lawyer” because of his reputation for trial skills and collaboration. Lawyers often partner with him on their difficult cases to maximize the results.

Charles is now the captain of the Justice College, an institution whose mission is to empower lawyers to face billion-dollar insurance companies without feeling overwhelmed. Charles and the instructors at the Justice College form a special forces unit of trial excellence capable of defeating any insurance team they face. The Justice College graduates become lifelong members of a tribe that share experiences to help the community stay at the top of their game and increase case value.

Charles is a cum laude graduate of SMU Dedman School of Law. Before pursuing law, he had an outstanding career as a college basketball player at Midwestern State University, where he exhibited excellent leadership skills and athleticism. He played professional basketball in Europe. Playing at the professional level necessitates an incredible work ethic, the ability to cooperate and work as a team, and competitiveness that he now applies in the courtroom with spectacular success.

During law school, Charles’s amazed everyone with his initiative and capability by obtaining international arbitration awards for professional basketball players and agents. Recognized as a member of The National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 and nominated as a Rising Star by Thomson Reuters, Charles’s legal acumen and commitment to excellence make him your best choice when you can’t afford to lose.

Dan Schiavetta | Russo & Gould LLP

Dan Schiavetta, of counsel to Russo & Gould LLP in New York City, has been a litigator for 30 years and is admitted in all New York and New Jersey state and federal courts and the Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeals. For 20 years he defended the Catholic Church in sexual abuse cases and other matters. He also has wide experience in insurance coverage litigation, nursing home defense, and appellate practice. He is a 1992 graduate of the University of California, Davis School of Law where he was a law review editor and moot court judge. In his previous career as a social worker he was the director of a crisis center and 24-hour hotline. He is also the author of “The Supreme Court for Short Attention Spans: 2000 Tiny Case Summaries Too Short to Bore You”, available on Amazon.

Session I – Justice Through Integrity: Tackling Unethical Litigation Tactics with Strategic Advocacy | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

• Exploiting Power Imbalances
  • Recognizing Power Imbalances
    • Dynamics of unequal resources or knowledge
    • Use of intimidation or coercion in negotiation or litigation
  • Unethical Exploitation
    • Excessive demands on weaker parties
    • Suppressing evidence or unfair settlement terms
  • Maintaining Ethical Advocacy
    • Balancing zealous representation with fairness
    • Addressing power imbalances within ethical frameworks
• Unnecessary Delays and Legal Maneuvering
  • Delay Tactics
  • Legal Maneuvering
• Strategies for Responding to Unethical Tactics
  • Recognizing and Documenting Unethical Behavior
  • Using Procedural Tools
  • Reporting and Accountability
  • Client Communication and Protection

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

Session II – Recognizing and Responding to Unethical Tactics | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

• Burdensome and Broad Discovery Requests
• Frivolous Objections to Discovery
• Hiding, Altering and Destroying Evidence
• Document and Data Dumping — Hiding the Ball
• Lawyers Who Won’t Communicate
• Depositions: “Rambo Tactics” by the Lawyer
• Rambo Tactics by the Deposing Lawyer
• Staying Out of Ethical Hot Water
  • Fairness to Opposing Party and Counsel
  • Duty of Candor
  • Technological Competence
  • Social Media Ethics Guidelines
  • Protecting the Confidences of Clients
  • Inadvertent Disclosures
  • Use of Paralegals and Third-Party Service Providers: UPL (Unauthorized Practice of Law) and the Duty to Supervise