NITA Publications

Fitzgerald v. NITA & Western Railroad

This case file is a wrongful death action arising out of an accident at a railroad crossing. The plaintiff contends the railroad was negligent in not providing adequate warnings at the crossing and in the operation of the train. The defendant claims the plaintiff was negligent in the operation of his car or intentionally drove his car into the train. CD includes dialogue in deposition format of important witnesses as well as PowerPoint slides on judge's instructions to the jury. There are five witnesses for the plaintiff and four for the defendant including use of experts.

• >> TABLE OF CONTENTS
  CONTENTS
  
  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  INTRODUCTION
  INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE
  PLEADINGS
  Complaint
  Answer
  DEPOSITION OF DEBRA FITZGERALD
  FUNERAL STATEMENT
  DEPOSITION OF ETHEL KAY
  ETHEL KAY'S LETTER TO NEWSPAPER EDITOR
  TRANSCRIPT OF STACY BECK'S RECORDED STATEMENT
  DIAGRAM OF STACY BECK'S HOUSE AND ADJACENT RAILROAD
  POLICE REPORTS ON INCIDENT
  E-MAIL FROM PARALEGAL LAURA FINE TO ATTORNEY TOM BUSCH
  State Trooper Photos of Scene
  RAILROAD SAFETY CONSULTANT'S (DAVID JONATHON'S) LETTER
  Resume of David Jonathan
  STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT LETTER TO PLAINTIFFS' ATTORNEY BUSCH
  Vehicle Count Summary
  COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT LETTER TO PLAINTIFFS' ATTORNEY BUSCH
  ECONOMIC DAMAGES REPORT PREPARED FOR PLAINTIFFS BY WILLIAM F. LANDSEA, PH.D.
  William F. Landsea, Ph.D. Professional Resume
  PHOTO OF DEBRA AND JOHNNY FITZGERALD
  RAILROAD ACCIDENT/INCIDENT REPORTS/PHOTOS
  STATEMENT OF MATT GREEN
  RAILROAD INVESTIGATOR MARK EDWARDS'S MEMO TO COLTON & MCLEOD LAW FIRM
  RAILROAD INVESTIGATOR'S ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF SCENE
  DEPOSITION OF EMILY FIELD
  DEPOSITION OF PAUL FIELD
  DEPOSITION OF AMY FIELD
  DEPOSITION OF NICK BARON
  JOSHUA ALAN, CONSULTING ENGINEER LETTER TO COLTON & MCLEOD LAW FIRM
  Curriculum Vitae of Joshua Alan
  DEPOSITION OF STEVE SMOLEN
  ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE OF LANDSEA ECONOMIC DAMAGES REPORT
  APPLICABLE NITA STATUTES
  PROPOSED JURY INSTRUCTIONS
  VERDICT FORM
  
  SPECIAL IMPEACHMENT PROBLEMS
  HOW TO USE THE CD
  POWERPOINT SLIDES SECTION

• >> AUTHORS
  
  
  • Frank D. Rothschild
    
    
    • Frank D. Rothschild has taught and lectured on trial advocacy since the 1970s. During that time he has been a NITA team leader and faculty member in hundreds of basic and advanced trial, deposition and technology courses. He has designed and been faculty at innumerable in-house programs for firms, insurance companies, public defender and prosecution agencies. In 1996 he received the Hon. Prentice H. Marshall Faculty Award from NITA. Mr. Rothschild graduated from Georgetown University Law Center and then clerked at the U.S. Court of Claims in Washington, D.C. He then started a private general practice in Marin County, California, before becoming a public defender in Juneau, Alaska. He became a civil litigator for Perkins Coi in its Anchorage, Alaska office, followed by becoming a felony prosecutor for the Anchorage District Attorney's office. In 1985 he moved to Hawaii, where he has lived since. Besides the many trial training programs he teaches each year, Mr. Rothschild also serves as an arbitrator/mediator for the American Arbitration Association and Dispute Prevention and Resolution, based in Honolulu. He has also served as a per diem judge on Kauai since 1994, and is a member of the appellate mediation panel for the Hawaii Judiciary's Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution. Mr. Rothschild has authored or co-authored over twenty publications including PowerPoint 2003: 50 Great Tips for Better, Easier Slides (NITA 2005); PowerPoint 2002 for Litigators (NITA 2002) and a chapter titled "Top Ten Screwups in Direct and Cross Examination of Experts" in 2000 Wiley Expert Witness Update (Aspen Law and Business 1999).

  
  

  • Laurence M. Rose
    
    
    • Laurence M. (Lonny) Rose was the president and chief executive officer of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). He is an adjunct professor at Sturm College of Law, University of Denver and also is an emeritus professor of law and former director of the Litigation Skills Program at the University of Miami School of Law. After serving as a law clerk to Chief Judge James S. Holden of the U.S. District Court of Vermont, Rose was in private practice in Burlington, Vermont, executive director of the Douglas County (KS) Legal Aid Society and has served as a special assistant U.S. attorney in Florida. Rose began his law teaching career at the University of Kansas School of Law in 1976 and moved to the University of Miami in 1990. He is admitted as an attorney in Vermont and Kansas and currently serves in leadership within the American Bar Association's Section of Litigation. Selected for the 1998 Richard S. Jacobson Award for Excellence in Teaching Trial Advocacy by the Roscoe Pound Foundation, in 2001 Rose was named an Academic Fellow by the International Society of Barristers. He has taught in more than three hundred trial advocacy programs throughout the world and is the author of more than a hundred books, articles and other legal publications.