On Feb. 28 after five hours of deliberation, a Dallas jury delivered a $49 million verdict in favor of Brian Hail’s clients, even though their representatives had not testified at the preceding two-and-a-half week trial.

"We proved the liability part of our case strictly through the other side’s witnesses," says Hail, a partner in Dallas’ Gruber Hurst Johansen Hail Shank. He says he made that decision after the trial began in the 162nd District Court in Dallas.