![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
final trial recap
Nov. 17th, 2007 07:59 amyesterday was all trial, all the time. the day was nerve-racking because i spent it all preparing, but the trial went off nicely. i was on the defense...i did two crosses, a direct, and the closing argument. the case was really bad for the defense--we were representing a nursing home being sued by a dead patient's daughter for some hinky things that a physical therapist may be doing.
we got something that was almost as good as a defense win, though. the plaintiff asked for at least $750,000 in damages for personal injury and wrongful death, including medical bills, pain and suffering, and hedonic (loss-of-enjoyment-of-life) damages. the jury ended up awarding just $13,000, the amount of the medical bills. that was pleasing...not as pleasing as winning would have been, but still good.
i did have a funny moment in the trial, though. one of the witnesses i was crossing was the decedent's neighbour in the nursing home. he claims to have heard a noise coming from the room next door, and his "ear-witnessing" was the closest thing the plaintiff had to any eye-witness to what happened. while preparing for trial, my partners and i were joking that we wanted to make him come off as really old and senile, and were coming up with silly ways to do so. turns out...i had a perfectly legit way to make him seem really senile, and it was hilarious.
this witness said on the stand that he was 87 years old. it said in his affidavit that he was 87, but the affidavit was dated august 2004. so, i opened up my cross with the following line of questioning, delivered in the sweetest aw-shucks manner i could muster:
me: you said on direct examination that you're 87 years old.
witness: yes, i did.
[i retrieve his statement and show it to opposing counsel.]
me: this is your sworn statement.
witness: yes.
me: in it, you say that you are 87 years old.
witness: yes.
me: now, it also says right here that this statement was taken on august 12, 2004.
witness: [sheepishly, as it dawns on him where i'm going] yes.
me: so, you're 90.
witness: yes.
at this point i had my professor cracking up.
usually i'd never do such a thing, but it was sweet to do my closing and refer to the plaintiff's only sequence-of-events witness as "a man who couldn't even remember how old he was."
we got something that was almost as good as a defense win, though. the plaintiff asked for at least $750,000 in damages for personal injury and wrongful death, including medical bills, pain and suffering, and hedonic (loss-of-enjoyment-of-life) damages. the jury ended up awarding just $13,000, the amount of the medical bills. that was pleasing...not as pleasing as winning would have been, but still good.
i did have a funny moment in the trial, though. one of the witnesses i was crossing was the decedent's neighbour in the nursing home. he claims to have heard a noise coming from the room next door, and his "ear-witnessing" was the closest thing the plaintiff had to any eye-witness to what happened. while preparing for trial, my partners and i were joking that we wanted to make him come off as really old and senile, and were coming up with silly ways to do so. turns out...i had a perfectly legit way to make him seem really senile, and it was hilarious.
this witness said on the stand that he was 87 years old. it said in his affidavit that he was 87, but the affidavit was dated august 2004. so, i opened up my cross with the following line of questioning, delivered in the sweetest aw-shucks manner i could muster:
me: you said on direct examination that you're 87 years old.
witness: yes, i did.
[i retrieve his statement and show it to opposing counsel.]
me: this is your sworn statement.
witness: yes.
me: in it, you say that you are 87 years old.
witness: yes.
me: now, it also says right here that this statement was taken on august 12, 2004.
witness: [sheepishly, as it dawns on him where i'm going] yes.
me: so, you're 90.
witness: yes.
at this point i had my professor cracking up.
usually i'd never do such a thing, but it was sweet to do my closing and refer to the plaintiff's only sequence-of-events witness as "a man who couldn't even remember how old he was."
