Wednesday, May 6, 2015

My Civic Duty

I just served on a jury. It was a personal injury case. The plaintiff was suing the defendant and her parents as a result of a parking lot accident (estimated speed of defendant's car was about 15 MPH). The evidence that the plaintiff's chronic, extreme lower back pain was attributable to THIS accident versus the rear end collision the plaintiff was involved in 4th months prior (THAT case settled)----well---let's just say the evidence was weak. OR one could surmise the plaintiff's attorney's were not quite up to the task. OR the defense attorney was pretty slick in getting those Facebook photos of the plaintiff standing in a rowboat with a beer in one hand and a fishing pole in the other. OR that the plaintiff completed a pain questionnaire PRIOR to the second accident that documented a pain level of 10 (0-10 score; 0 = no pain).


We were only asked to judge whether the second accident was a substantive factor in the harm to the plaintiff. We said no. Twelve out of twelve------NO. We didn't have to proceed through the questions related to past and future medical expenses, pain and suffering, grief, loss and so on because we said NO.


I've now served on three personal injury cases. All three had the same outcome. So much money spent on expert witnesses, court time, lawyers. Lost days at work for jurors that in many cases means more work when they return to their jobs. Stress on the family being sued for upwards of a quarter of a million dollars in this, the latest case.


I object. Objection sustained.

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