Monday, January 06, 2020

Settling In The Courtroom On The Day Of Trial

Blogging has been a tad light as I've been preparing for a civil jury trial that was to start today.

Prepping to go to trial is like nothing else in a lawyer's life - it takes 100% of your time and effort to get ready, do your jury instructions, prepare your jury selection, prepare your witnesses, prepare your expert witnesses, plan your opening, craft you exhibits, prepare exhibit books, prepare your witness questions, prepare your cross examinations of the other side's witnesses and be ready to go. It's nerve-wracking as there's a lot riding on it and you don't want to miss even the smallest detail that might help win your case.

So I get to the courthouse and am in the courtroom setting up at 8am this morning.

The other side had so far refused to settle. Amazingly when we were looking at over $130k if it went in our favor, we were all of $5,000 apart after major concessions by my clients in settlement numbers. The other side had refused to even give the courtesy of a response on Friday to my offer of splitting the baby and us coming down and they coming up by $2,500 to be done. So I work all through the weekend getting everything ready to go.

So another couple attorneys walk in - uh oh, looks like we're about to be bounced for a criminal case as criminal trials get precedence over civil trials. This means rescheduling everything and everyone and we would go sometime after the criminal case ends.

The judge calls us in to chambers and we discuss, and she's not amused that the other side is not settling over $2,500 after all the good faith concessions we had made to try and settle it. She also talks with the parties (separately) about settlement as well.

Unfortunately, the dynamics of the case is the other side is represented by the Defendant's daughter, for free. Even worse, she's a family lawyer by trade so it makes some things even more difficulty in what is a property damage case.

It was also very clear the judge wanted this case settled. After much browbeating they finally come up the $2,500 and my clients grudgingly accept it after having us had to work so hard this weekend when this should have been resolved Friday without all that time spent.

We put the settlement and entered judgment on the record and we're done.

Most cases settle because there's no guarantee as to what a jury will do.

This case also settled as getting the Defendant to pay up even if we got the full $13k we were after would be difficult as in the over a year and a half since we filed, he's had health issues and become much less collectible than he had been before when the case started.

The clients decided not to take the risk of trial and save themselves days of trial and also having to wait for the trial to be rescheduled and instead got this finally done. Too bad the other side couldn't have done that on Friday.

Can't blame my clients one bit for deciding to settle and getting this case, which has been on since 2018 over, and it's always their decision, but taking this to trial would have been fun after all the work and sweat put into preparing for it and dressing up for the occasion.

2 comments:

Old NFO said...

Sigh... So pretty much a wasted weekend. And I assume the expert witness STILL expects to be paid.

pigpen51 said...

Aaron,
I live in Muskegon, was born and raised in Hesperia. I understand your feelings about having put all of the work into this case and then have it turn out the way it did. You of course have to feel good that your clients came out on top of this one. Sometimes, even when they are on the right side of the issue, they can still end up holding the dirty end of the stick.
My only experience with the Michigan court system, other than a divorce case in my younger days, came when I was called upon for jury duty. I went and sat through the prosecutor and the defense selection of the jury, and I got an education.
The case involved an African American man, who worked for the hospital, and was accused of stealing the credit card of a patient. We took a break for lunch, and a man, probably around 60 years old, said that he knew that the guy was guilty, because the police would not have arrested him if he was innocent. I was shocked a bit, because I never would have done anything like prejudging the case, but would have heard the evidence and weighed the Judges instructions and the evidence together, to come to a conclusion. And my mother and father were both working class people, but they also owned a restaurant for over 30 years, and had many minority friends, who stopped into our house often, and I played with their kids and also worked in a foundry with black men, a few of whom were my close friends, and one who was my best friend, and so even though I know that I have some parts of myself that are bigoted, I always strive to get rid of any of those parts that I can.
During the afternoon I was brought up and was asked a few questions by the prosecution, and then the defense asked that I be dismissed. The man who was certain that the defendant was guilty, was one of the members of the jury who was seated. I could not help but think to myself that the defense lawyer had screwed up big time, by being prejudiced himself, and simply assuming that because I was a white male, age of around 40, that I would be against the black defendant, simply because of my skin color.
I understand why the chance to remove some members of the jury pool exists. But there should be a reason for the removal, and not just an unlimited option of random removal of whom ever the legal team chooses. Because the chance to get a jury of your peers is really not happening, if the lawyers are allowed to attempt to stack the jury by rejecting anyone who they think could be problematic due to the color of their skin or the level of their education, or the perceived IQ.
Have a good week, and be safe and enjoy whatever fun you can, while we avoid any huge storms.
Pigpen51