Am heading out on a plane tomorrow to fight this in court. The young woman is 21. The defense pulled all of her public social network postings a few years ago. Recently they tried to grab more stuff off the sites but encountered privacy settings.
We bring a motion to prevent "an unnecessary additional fishing expedition into her private life." The defense says - this information could be relevant so it has to be produced.
Read MoreThere is a school of thought that you should not object during trial. Just let the bad questions go where they will. So the jury won't think you are trying to hide something by objecting. Maybe so. Maybe not.
But in a video perpetuation deposition the court rules on the objections ahead of time. And then the videotape is edited. The jury isn't dragged through the technical details.
Read MoreAm in an absolutely foul detestable mood. The stupid office servers have had a "catastrophic failure." 24 hours ago and counting.
Can feel blood pressure increasing. Stomach is sitting at base of throat. Have a prehearing statement of proof due today. Am growling orders. Punching numbers on the phone. One after the other. Apologize for being so awful. Then go back to being horrible.
Read MoreMary Fung cured me from saying "um" when I was still a teenager. Here's what she would do:
This is what any good Tiger Mom and in her case - Dragon Lady Mom would have done.
Read MoreI told my kids a lot of stories when they were little. Pictures were good and well. But what they really liked was when I acted out the characters.
In trial opening is the opportunity to tell the story. There are no rules that say we need to read it and be boring. Over the years I have ben a bus, a cross walk, and other various objects or people when I've told the opening story. But look what happened in this case. The judge was not used to having a story told with quite as much dramatic flair.
Read MoreThe teams are putting on the final trial. It is our last class of the year. The seventh year Bill Bailey and I have taught trial advocacy together at the UW. (He's a professor on staff now in the law school)
Rush around all day doing our regular lawyer stuff. Inch along thru rush hour traffic to get to the school by 5:30. Stomachs often rumbling. Sometimes choke down a power bar.
Read MoreRemember my defense medical doctor movie. Perhaps you thought it was fictitious. Or at least exaggerated. Because after all it was writen in a huff. Directly after the deposition. Before it was transcribed.
Well, here is the actual transcript. You be the judge. What is funnier (more obnoxious): the movie or the real thing.
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