The Value of Dated Practice Manuals

Special thanks to Evan Schaefer's recent post on a new trial ad book.  It broke my writer's block.    

I'll spare author and publisher names for the sake of mitigating the forthcoming defamation suits . . .   My shelves are stacked with too many expensive, mediocre practice manuals!  

On the one hand, this is somewhat reassuring--if that stuff can get published, maybe the notes I took at the last seminar can too.  On the other hand, spending your hard earned cash on books that amount to cut-and-paste jobs of statutes is frustrating.  

The good news is that used books do have a place in the legal biz.  We all know the law changes rapidly in some areas.  For at least two, however, I've found that you're pretty safe relying on older, cheaper publications.

With notable exceptions (like asbestosis and medical malpractice), civil procedure is pretty much the same today as it was 5 years ago--and chances are, you probably know what's changed in the last 5 years.  That's why I don't waste the effort to pay $100 for O'Connor's Civil Trial.  You can find a perfectly usable 2005 edition at your local Half Price Books or on Amazon.  It's also worth asking some of the more well-to-do lawyers in your locale if you can purchase their old editions at a discount.  I know several lawyers who order a new set every year and simply truck the old versions off to storage never to be looked at again.

Even more timeless than civil procedure, trial advocacy is a subject where you can really mine the archives for useful information.  Two books stand out in my experience:  Thomas Mauet's Fundamentals of Pretrial Techniques and Fundamentals of Trial Techniques.  Their contemporaries go by hipper titles, but the 1980s versions I own are by far, the most useful practice manuals I own.  I purchased them for about $8-12 each on Amazon.