A Practical Approach to Effective Litigation

• A comprehensive guide to the use of legal skills in practice, combined with substantive law and procedural and evidential rules
• Offers sound advice on analysing a case and representing a client, as well as guidance on writing and drafting effectively
• Includes practical examples, checklists and forms to help practitioners navigate their way round this area of law
• Provides a step-by-step guide to litigation from the first interview to post-judgement

New to this edition

• Completely updated to reflect changes in the rules of civil procedure and evidence, as well as the relevant case law
• More checklists and how-to-do-it guides focusing on collecting evidence for a case; reviewing the strengths of a case, and deciding how to take a case forward
• More focus on practical and business aspects, including costs, collecting and preparing evidence and dealing with the other side effectively
• New chapter on running a case in a business like way and assessing risks

Readership: Primary: Civil Litigation practitioners (particularly newly qualified), trainee practitioners; LPC and BVC students. Secondary: Academics; first degree law students; reference libraries.

Susan Blake, Director of Studies and Associate Dean, Inns of Court School of Law

Review(s) from previous edition

"'A Practical Approach to Effective Litigation is an excellent text for any lawyer, particularly a young lawyer who has just completed their training. The text provides a number of excellent tips to guide the reader through the effective management of litigation...' this is a well-written and practical guide to litigation and certainly a text that I will keep close to my desk. It provides a number of precedents which will be extremely useful to any practitioner and it provides excellent value for money. Any commercial or civil litigator should seriously consider purchasing this text.' - Russell Kelsall, The Student Law Journal

1: What is Effective Litigation?
2: The Roles of Legal Practitioners
3: The Professional Context - Ethos and Ethics
4: An Overview of the Litigation Process
5: Financing Litigation
6: Managing Risk and Cost Benefit
7: Techniques for Meetings With Clients
8: Advising a Client and Taking Instructions
9: Establishing, Managing, and Analysing Facts
10: Managing and Using Legal Knowledge
11: Defining Issues to State a Case
12: Skills in Legal Writing
13: Drafting a Statement of Case
14: Deciding Who Should Sue Whom
15: Pursuing Appropriate Remedies and Relief
16: The Vital Role of Evidence
17: Procedural Rules as Practical Tools
18: Defending an Action
19: The Contract Model
20: The Tort Model
21: Settling a Case
22: Preparing a Case for Trial
23: Presenting a Case in Court
24: Challenging a Judgment
25: Enforcing a Judgment
26: Your Practice