Hall Booth Smith, P.C. Announces Trial Lawyer Readiness Program

Hall Booth Smith, P.C. (HBS) is committed to remaining an industry leader not only in defending tort actions but also in training attorneys to maintain the HBS mark of excellence in the courtroom.

The insurance defense industry is facing a looming crisis of untrained and untested lawyers defending their insureds. The promise of great reward  in  a plaintiff’s practice and the relatively modest hourly rates of a defense practice have drained the pool of skilled and trial tested defense counsel.

Fear of large verdicts and bad faith claims have reduced the controls in the hands of the carriers.  When plaintiffs know that litigation is merely a drawn out (and expensive) negotiation, the tables are turned. Fewer cases are tried and younger attorneys don’t receive mentored experience. The opportunity to try cases within the first five years of practice is nonexistent in most firms. This fact is primarily driven by the lack of cases taken to a jury and the cost concerns of the insurers.

HBS has instituted a comprehensive in-house Trial Readiness Program (“TRP”) ™ combining mentoring, carefully selected courtroom video professionally produced accompanied by written materials developed to cover the basics as well as specialized modules teaching effective cross examination of experts, economists, life care planners and the use of the Affordable Care Act to make inroads into collateral source barriers for example. This basic training program is in addition to our policy of supporting our attorneys for their participation in other trial skills programs outside the firm.

TRP ™ has developed from a nearly two decades old program originally named “HBS University” created when the firm realized that there was a change in the experience level that young lawyers were able to obtain.  HBS University was created to allow the senior lawyers to provide direct in-house training to junior lawyers. In addition the younger lawyers are involved in organizing these events and selecting topics.

HBS University is one more step we take in carrying out the firm’s philosophy that if you don’t improve you stagnate and can no longer achieve excellence serving our clients.

Hall Booth Smith, P.C. is a full-service law firm with twelve  offices in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. For more than twenty years, HBS has delivered quality legal services with a mission “to ethically and professionally serve our clients by providing the highest quality legal representation in a personally satisfying firm environment.” Our promise – “Serving to Achieve Excellence.”