We sat down with Charles for an exclusive interview to discuss how cases he consulted on won over $35M in 2019, his philosophy for using Trial Structure, and where he sees himself and Trial Structure going from here.
Katonya Johnson (KJ): Congratulations! What a year.
Charles Bennett (CB): I know, right? Thank you. I’d say we’re probably on to something here. I knew we were heading towards success in 2018 when Albert Lechner won his trial in Florida for $1.6M. He called me after the verdict and told me the defense lawyer came up to him while the jury was out deciding the case and said, “When you finished your opening statement, I was convinced you had my trial folder! I went back to my office and called all the lawyers together and said, ‘How did Albert Lechner get my trial folder? He knew everything I was going to say before I said it.’” I didn’t believe Al at first, but another lawyer in Florida heard the same story from one of the defense lawyers in that office.
KJ: That is unbelievable. How do you think you’re able to guess their defenses so well?
CB: Well, it’s not guessing. The key to Trial Structure is recognizing the patterns that occur in these cases. At our seminars, I always tell the lawyers, “Go stand on the moon and look down at your state or our country, at the hundreds or thousands of cases just like this one, and what do you see? What does the defense say? And how does that feel?” Once we look at cases that way, things get much easier. The more cases we structure, the more patterns we’re able to identify and incorporate in our toolbox. But that requires us to get out of the weeds of these cases, which is tough when a lawyer has been living and breathing a case for 2-3 years. That’s why all the Trial Structure instructors use each other to structure their own cases. Like Brett Turnbull, who used me to structure his cases this year, and we won over $14M in verdicts. Why would Brett, who’s a Trial Structure Instructor and one of the best trial lawyers in the country, want my help on his case? You can ask him, but I’m pretty sure it’s because he wants an objective eye on things. We all do that. I call Kyle Sherman, Jamie Holland, Ilya Lerma, and Alejandro Blanco all the time to talk shop with them. It’s a collaboration of ideas.
KJ: It sounds like a team effort. You talk about the structure as though it’s a thing. Almost like it’s alive itself? Is that intentional?
CB: Yeah, it’s not intentional. But it’s accurate. Alejandro Blanco taught us the Trial Structure and allowed us all the freedom to work with it. It continues to develop and adapt as we use it on more cases and get more input from each other and the students that come to our seminars. The key is that it is a concept for organizing information in a way that allows the Jury to understand the truth of what happened. There are no gimmicks or tricks. It’s not based on any one concept that the defense can limine out. It is a way to present the information in the case to the Jury, so justice is actually done. The defense gimmicks and tricks are exposed for what they are. That’s it’s true power.
KJ: Speaking of that, I’ve heard lawyers compare Trial Structure to other trial programs around the country. What’s the difference?
CB: The difference is what we’ve been talking about: Patterns. I hear lawyers tell me all the time, “I went to this seminar, and the speakers talked about how they won this case, or destroyed that expert, or proved this injury –– but there’s no way any of that would ever work on my cases!” There’s no real continuity or road map to be able to apply what some programs or speakers teach to other cases. Trial Structure is based on patterns, and it’s proven to work on all types of liability cases from trucking cases, to medical malpractice, employment wrongful termination, civil rights, even a lost body at a funeral home that Jeff Hester (https://www.jeffhesterlawoffice.com) won $12M on in Mobile, Alabama. Lawrence Buhler used it to win a probate/estate, real estate case that was really a breach of an oral contract case. It also presents damages to the jury so they can truly understand the loss the defense caused. Brain damage, spinal injuries, emotional injuries, PTSD, you name it, it works. I mean, when you really zoom out and think about what’s going on in a trial, it’s always the same thing: Somebody did something wrong to someone else and hurt them. That’s it. And if you can prove it, human beings will do the right thing, and do it fairly. That’s all we’re asking for from the jury at the end of the day: Make the defendant pay the appropriate amount for what they did to the plaintiff.
KJ: How do you find time to do this when you have your own practice?
CB: It’s a little surreal how quickly my law firm, Bennett Injury Law in Dallas, is really taking off. And Trial Structure just adds to everything. It’s not really work when you love what you do. And when I get a call like the one I got after Jeff Hester won that $12M verdict in Mobile, when he said, “Thank you, I couldn’t have done it without you.” That makes it all worth it.
KJ: So where does Trial Structure go from here? What does 2020 look like?
CB: That’s the exciting part! We’re just getting started. We’re scheduled to speak at NTL in January and STLA in February. We’re doing an opening statement seminar in April that is going to be mind blowing! I tell lawyers that our opening statement program will change the course of a lawyer’s career. It did mine, for sure! Kyle Sherman and I worked on a wrongful termination case in San Diego with Justin Walker (https://walkerlawsd.com), who was just starting his own practice. He won a little over a $4M verdict and now his phone won’t stop ringing! That’s what we want. A group of hard-working lawyers, that are dedicated to holding defendants and their insurance companies accountable when they refuse to be responsible for what they did. 2020 is going to be great!