Torts and Personal Injury Law for the Paralegal ─ Developing Workplace Skills

Written by a trial lawyer who has had 37 years of practical experience in torts and personal injury law and moving beyond traditional torts textbooks, Tort and Personal Injury Law for the Paralegal covers the topics that help win and lose cases. In addition to the traditional black letter law of torts, the book offers unique chapters on medical and insurance issues–preparing paralegals for the real tasks they are likely to face in today’s workplace. This revolutionary book is filled with authentic legal, medical and insurance documents that allow students to learn how documents are constructed and where to find critical information. End-of-chapter assignments and instructor materials simulate a supervising attorney's work requests and help students build skills and create samples for prospective employers.

RICHARD N. JEFFRIES is a semi-retired civil litigation personal injury attorney with 37 years of experience. His areas of practice included automobile, asbestos, construction, insurance coverage issues (declaratory judgment (DJ) actions and coverage opinions), premises liability, products liability, medical malpractice, legal malpractice, and other areas of professional negligence.

He is an adjunct professor at Minnesota State University in Moorhead, Minnesota, teaching personal injury law in the paralegal studies program. He was a speaker at numerous bar association continuing legal education (CLE) seminars and produced several publications for his peers. These publications were written on the subjects of legal malpractice, statutes of limitation, and issues concerning an insurance carrier’s duty to defend and indemnify. He has been a lecturer for various paralegal organizations. He was given the honor of being appointed by the Center for International Legal Studies to be a Senior Lawyer Visiting Professor to teach in Poland.

For the years 1995 to 2003, he was named a Leading Minnesota Attorney by his peers. His attorney rating in Martindale Hubbell is “av,” the highest rating, also given based on recommendations from peers. He is an active member of the bar association of Minnesota and an inactive member in good standing in North Dakota and Florida. He started his own boutique insurance defense law firm in 1986 and was the president, managing shareholder, and chairman of the board of directors. The firm represented national and international clients and insurance companies. Although his litigation work was primarily on the defense side, he also represented plaintiffs in numerous personal injury cases and other types of cases. He has also participated extensively in the alternative dispute resolution process both as an attorney representing clients and as a mediator and an arbitrator.

He keeps busy working at a local law firm in Phoenix, Arizona and travelling to Minnesota State University to teach his night class in personal injury. He is also currently working on a new textbook.

He is a graduate of Moorhead State University with a B.A. in Business Administration and received his Juris Doctorate with distinction from the University of North Dakota.