Enviable record: 25 months, 21 trials, 16 victories, $30.8M verdicts

By Kallie Cox
Missouri Lawyers Weekly

Eric Playter isn’t one to toot his own horn, but after he tried 21 cases in 25 months and won 16 of them — obtaining verdicts amounting to $30.8 million — we had to know his secret.

Playter’s advice to those looking to achieve similar results: “Don’t do this.”

Playter and his brother, Chris Playter, own and operate Playter Trial Lawyers in a suburb of Kansas City. Playter said his cases are about 50% personal injury and 50% civil rights — mostly employment discrimination.

His winning streak took place from September 2022 to October 2023. Five of the cases he tried were personal injury, one was legal malpractice, and the rest were employment discrimination cases.

Playter said his ability to juggle so many cases at once boils down to one thing — experience.

“Having done so many in a shorter period of time, I developed some […] acumen in terms of how to get documents organized, how to keep them searchable in a way where I can find what I need almost immediately,” Playter said.

For Playter, everything comes down to organization.

“It’s not like a battle of the experts for the most part. It’s just figuring out who’s important in the case and what documents are important,” he said.

Playter handles all the technology for his cases when presenting. He says this helps because he knows where everything is, so there is less delay or downtime when pulling an exhibit. When he does run into tech issues, it shows the jury he is a human being who is genuine with them, he said.

How can he juggle so many cases while preventing burnout?

He answered that he was burned out. That’s why when he was asked to give a speech about his experience to other attorneys, he warned them not to follow in his footsteps.

“I barely saw my family, I got four kids,” he said.

Client loyalty

The only reason Playter tried so many cases at once was because he did not want to let his clients down after their cases were stalled due to the pandemic.

“We had the COVID backup, and I just wasn’t willing to tell my clients to settle their case for next to nothing,” he said.

Many of Playter’s cases are civil rights issues that add an extra sense of duty to the equation.

“It’s easy to be dedicated to these cases when you have clients who have been wronged, they’ve been waiting for a long time, they’re counting on you, and you believe in what’s going on. You believe in the system,” he said. “I think the system is the best way to resolve cases, and so in the moment, I don’t really feel burnout.”

Playter is making a conscious effort to avoid taking on so many cases again this year, but he has advice for other attorneys prepping for trial.

“You have to know everything. You have to know the entire file,” he said. “You’re likely only going to use a fraction of it. But knowing where it is — either having it memorized or having systems in place where you can find exactly what you need when you need it — is important because trials come down to moments and if you’re not ready for the moment, you can miss it, and the moment can swing the outcome.”

Believing in your client and your case is just as important.

“Make sure you believe in your case, make sure you believe in your plaintiff,” he said. “People will sniff out if you aren’t authentic and you aren’t genuine. If you don’t really believe something, I think a jury of 12 or 14 or six or whatever it is, they will sniff it out. They will know that you aren’t being genuine, and they’ll punish you.”

More than winning

Playter finds the work rewarding and more worthwhile than what comes with losing or winning a case here and there, he said.

“The pride you feel when you win, the devastation you feel when you lose, are all things that make you a better human being and more able to then help more people in the future,” Playter said. “There’s enough reason to be passionate about this work and I think going to trial is the ultimate passion project if it makes sense in the case.”