We Lose...

Well, it was a long road and a lot of litigation, but the jury has spoken and in the traditional argot of juries, they said something best translated as "Go home. You Suck."



Yes, indeed, I got a bad verdict in the trial--a defense verdict. And I admit it--I was completely flabbergasted. The idea that we'd just lose hardly crossed my mind. The jury, clearly frustrated after a very long very slow trial basically scored it two experts for us, two experts for them and decided to call it a draw. The one thing they didn't seem to want to do was weigh credibility--one of the few things both sides urged them to do.

The good news, of course, is that this wasn't a criminal trial, and so, in the end, no one goes to jail. It was all about money, and frankly, after 15 years of being a PD, it's awfully hard to get too exercised about who gets the money. Yes, I definitely thought our client was seriously wronged, and there's no question in my mind at least that the defendant (Dr. Herbert Brown DDS who, it turns out had another malpractice case filed against him that he won in part on statue of limitations grounds at the appellate level) totally butchered our client. Moreover, I took it as a point of pride that we only asked for what we really thought the case was worth. Alas, it turns out that at least for now, the case is worth exactly nothing.

I'll post a longer review of the trial soon, along with some of the many things I learned about civil litigation (it's neither). But for now, it's time to start copyediting the book, working on the flap copy (pretty cool I must say) and heading out for a big-assed meal of tasty indian food.