Sharks in Suits and the Company They Keep

First of all, my apologies. My apologies to all my friends and family members who work in our legal system (i.e. attorneys, paralegals, etc…). God knows you have helped us out on many occasions. But I must say, our legal system is whacked. Perhaps at one time it hummed evenly on its axis, but now? It is clearly out of balance.

I recently was called to serve on a jury. Little did I know how this would end. But first, let me tell you the process. It began very much like being picked to be on a team in 7th grade gym class. Attorneys (team captains) would ask questions according to jurors' experiences, professions and opinions. If there was something that stood out as being beneficial to their case they'd keep you, if there was something said that they did not feel was advantageous to their case, they'd ask the judge to have the juror dismissed. Unfortunately for me, both team captains wanted me. I did not want to be on either of their teams. I did not even want to play their game. But before I knew it they had me hooked into their cat and mouse, gotcha and legal ping-pong game. I quickly learned that no one was allowed to lie, except of course, the attorneys. They lied by omission, they lied by slanting their perspective of their stories, they lied by stretching the truth so far it snapped in your face. But still I was enthralled by the story, many times struggling to contain my expression of "you've got to be kidding me?" or the rolling of my eyes (a technique I have learned from my teenage daughter). The trial involved a man, a train, the man's employer, and their legal teams. One legal team (plaintiff's attorneys) came all the way from St. Louis, MO. They were a team of relatively young lawyers with dollar signs in their eyes, lots of dollar signs. The opposing legal team, the defendant's attorneys, were local, a pair of older attorneys and probably had their jobs on the line.

The story is laid out in front of us. The judge explained that real life trials were not at all like TV trials. Perhaps true, but equally entertaining nonetheless. The plaintiff worked for a railroad yard and was on the premises when he was hit by a train. His claim was that in spite of several warnings and near-misses the railroad yard failed to place nothing more than a stop sign at the crossing, making it unsafe and perilous. The company claimed that they had met the standards as required by the government (they would have looked much better had they EXCEEDED the standards, in my humble opinion). The plaintiff had sustained several serious injuries, but appeared to be fine after several years. He could sit for long periods of time without being in any obvious pain, he could walk, he could take his coat on and off without any assistance. He had not seen a physician in years nor was he taking any medication. He had not left the stove unattended causing a fire or displayed any other long term effects due to head trauma. When he took the witness stand he seemed to be mentally and emotionally equipped to handle the line of questioning by the defense, and many times even appearing glib, making the plaintiff's claim that he needed 16 hours of care every day (to the tune of about 15 million dollars) seem incredulous. Furthermore, he spent the day playing video games, calling his friends and navigating on MySpace. The legal sparring kept me on the edge of my Lilliputian juror's seat (ever sit in one of those? They are cramped, tiny and made for the rear of a person born in the 1800's). Each side brought in their legal expert witnesses. Well paid too, ranging anywhere from $10,000 to $24,000. What a racket. They should pass a law making it illegal to pay expert witnesses; it’s a lot like campaign financing. You scratch my back and I will scratch, massage and apply sweet smelling cream to cover up the stench on yours. Okay, I am perhaps, just a little jaded from this experience.


The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back....
It was towards the end of the trial that I noticed something that made me want to scream, "Wait a cotton-picking minute!" I could not believe my eyes. The highly paid expert witness appeared to be trying to sway the jury with what was in my opinion, questionable means. At first I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. But the more I thought about it the more I came to believe that he knew exactly what he was doing.

This expert witness, a well known psychologist, stated that the plaintiff was a psychopath. He determined this after spending an hour with him. There were no facts presented to back up his claim. No lengthy criminal record was presented. No other psychological reports noting a history of pathology or dysfunction other than a self assessment indicating that at times he felt depressed. In fact, the only information presented by the defense was that he lied on his MySpace profile saying he made a lot more money then he actually did. Men lie about two things and how much money they make is one of them. Use your imagination for the second lie. If they counted these lies as a sign of pathology then we'd sure have a lot of psychopaths walking around. The psychologist gave us the definition of a psychopath, he said its not a ruthless, cold blooded killer like we see on television. A psychopath is a manipulator; he uses manipulation for his personal gain. We have a saying in Spanish; "look at the donkey talk about long ears."

This psychologist was the highest paid expert witness on this case. He had made $24,000 for perhaps 2 days worth of work. Furthermore, this was not the first time he provided expert testimony for this client. This was, in fact, approximately the 10th time he provided services to this client. Holy smoke, and I was sitting there making $40.00 a day as a juror, subtract my parking fee of $10.00, I am down to $30.00 a day, minus my $6.00-$7.00 lunch as there are no refrigerators to store or microwaves to heat lunches brought from home in the jurors room.

The psychologist had a lot of money riding on this, his client needed to win. And he was about to prove (in my eyes) that he'd do anything possible to make it happen.

During a sidebar, while the defense and plaintiff's attorneys were busy with the judge the expert witness held a book up titled "Without Conscience" by Robert Hare, a leading expert on the subject of psychopaths. How convenient I thought to have with him a book about psychopaths available and secondly for him to have carried it to the witness stand. He was no dummy; here he was with a PhD in psychology with years of varied experience, education and knowledge. This did not appear to me to be an accident. Or perhaps it was as we say in Spanish, "un accidente a propósito" an "intentional accident," on purpose, with a motive and an objective. He held the book up for the jury to see. His eyes did not appear to be reading, it seemed that he was actually paying attention to what was going on to his left, where the sidebar was taking place. When the sidebar broke up, he put his book away. That afternoon I went home confused. Unfortunately, I could not talk to anyone about it. I had to figure this one out myself. I could not call my psychologist friends or my attorney friends and ask what their opinion was or ask for advice. That night I tossed and turned and at 3:00 in the morning I decided I would write the judge a letter and tell her what had happened. Then it would be in her hands to decide how to proceed. When I walked in to the jury room the next day, I asked my fellow jurors, if they had seen something they felt was inappropriate would they say something to the judge? One juror said that if it really bothered me then I should let the judge know. I told them that I could not say what I saw to them but felt so strongly about it that I was going to inform the judge. I gave my letter to the bailiff.

It was customary to have late starts, we'd have to report at 9:00 am but usually we'd be called in to the courtroom around 10:00 am. Today was no different, except this day I was the only one called in. The judge read my letter to the two legal teams. The defense team no longer wanted me in the game and they made their case before the judge. The judge at that point had no choice other than to release me. She was very kind in dismissing me and felt I had acted according to my conscience; she said she liked me and appreciated my honesty.

And with those words, I was dismissed. I walked into the jury room and collected my things and the bailiff escorted me to the elevators. I visited my good friend Eileen for coffee that day and she reassured me that I had done the right thing.
I was crushed and felt that I was honest in my civil commitment and had invested time and energy into this and yet I was so easily dismissed. Why wasn't the expert witness called out on the carpet? Perhaps he was. Why didn't the defense legal team read him the riot act and ask for their money back? Perhaps they did. I, however, could not help but feel slighted. I had fully participated in this legal charade. I had followed the rules, why hadn't they? "They" being the participants in this very jaded legal system. I had invested time, money, emotion, brain power. And for them, it was a money game. A real shell game.


The Outcome

I had up to this point felt that the plaintiff did not deserve much of a settlement. His attorneys had failed to make much of a case. However, at the same time, I felt the defendants failed to protect any idiot from crossing the railroad track. I was not convinced they were blameless. There were no cross bucks, no bells, no whistles, no lights, just a moveable stop sign that drunken teenagers could move or take. If anything, I think I would have awarded the plaintiff a token to serve as a wake-up call to both sides of the legal aisle. But the jury that was left did not entertain such scenarios. Instead the jury declared that the railroad company was completely free of any responsibility and the plaintiff was entitled to nothing. So be aware that if you accidentally turn on to a railroad yard you could be hit by a train because the company may be too lazy, too stubborn or too cheap to warn you.

I truly hope I never have to participate in this warped legal system again.