Lawyers of reddit what was your “HOLD IT!” moment where you knew you would win?
I had a client who was accused of taking a young woman's car and then crashing it/fleeing
the scene. The girl testified at trial that she had given
him the keys that night because she was drunk and "would never, ever drink and drive".
Apparently she was not aware that I had requested and obtained a copy of her driving record
which showed she received a DUI a month after the incident.
I still remember the look on her face when I handed her driving record to her and said
"Except for that one time you got caught a month later, right?"
The look on the judge's face was equally memorable. I trapped a defendant pretty badly one time.
He testified in a depo he had a green arrow for his left turn and that my client ran the
red. Unfortunately for him, the additional turn
lane arrow was installed 2 months after the wreck.
Case settled for policy limits a week later I'm not a lawyer, but I took my old landlord
to court when I was in college. They stole my security deposit over beep They
claimed I "trashed" the place, not knowing that I took pictures and video when I moved
in and out. Their "evidence" was a VHS quality recording
of going through a perfectly clean apartment in better condition than it was when I moved
in, but then they opened up the top of the stove and found a single piece of elbow macaroni
under it, holding it up triumphantly. That was the crux of their "defense", the
judge was not amused and I got all my money back plus my lawyer fees and the filing fee.
She then fought against her own lawyer to avoid paying him.
Asshole. Edit: Any time you move into a place, take
pictures, take video, make notes about any damage.
When you move out, do the same thing along with noting any repairs you made.
Pretty hard to argue against solid evidence. Protect yourself.
It wasn’t at trial, but during a deposition on a case where two former employees decided
to start their own company in a VERY niche market, but decided to make their plans on
company laptops they unsuccessfully tried to brick.
One of the defendants was the one being deposed. She said she “answered to a higher power
than the company.” When pressed on what that meant, she said “herself.” That got
reused prominently at trial. Edit: Because multiple people have asked and
finding a clarification in the replies might be annoying, there isn’t anything illegal
about wanting to leave one company and start your own.
The problem was how they did it, which was trying to poach existing clients while still
employed, which breached their fiduciary duty, particularly of loyalty.
I believe we also went after them for intentional interference with contract, as they weren’t
trying to solicit new clients for their business, but rather trying to get existing ones to
break their contracts with our client. Using the company laptop to try to do it just
made it way easier to catch them when the company IT guy found all the emails.
And for privacy reasons, I won’t say what industry it was, but to the person who asked,
no, it was not a high-end escort service.
I’ve never had to deal with one of those. I did have to ask a witness once about a sugar
daddy website once, though. So that was fun.
I was reviewing the transcript of an interview with a child.
The child made incriminating statements against my client.
At one point, when discussing the allegations, the child used an odd word, but I didn't think
much of it. A few days later, I was watching a video of
the child interacting with their grandmother (who hates my client) from about a week before
that interview. The grandmother used the exact same odd word
in the exact context the child later used it.
At that moment, it became clear that child had been coached.
It was the first real "ah ha!" moment of my career.
I was sued for a car crash. While the plaintiff was on the stand, she
began recounting the event and everyone realized it was a completely different crash.
Different cars involved, different time of day, everything.
Upon cross-examination, she revealed that she had FOUR lawsuits running concurrently
and couldn’t keep them all straight. The jury foreman looked at me and rolled his
eyes! Her eventual payout (paid by my insurance
co) was a pittance, less than the initial settlement offer before the whole thing went
to trial. Her lawyer was shaking with anger when court
adjourned. He was one of those “we don’t get paid
unless we get money for you” guys, so he lost a lot of money on that one.
I worked on a case involving defective processors. In discovery we got emails from the defendant’s
engineers that had worked on the processors. They were in an Asian country but the emails
were in English because they were going to US executives.
One of the more senior engineers basically laid out the exact defect we were suing over,
explaining what the problem was and why it was their fault, and finishing with “this
is big problem, we ship CRAP to customer!” Needless to say we hit them over the head
with that in mediation, and they settled shortly after.
"My client has been keeping her son away from the father because the father has a new child.
She is concerned that her son will act violently towards the new child and she could be held
liable." Judge: "That's not even a defense!"
I’m a trial lawyer. I have a ton of these.
My favorite was probably a DUI where the cop was in a BWW with my client watching a fight.
Like, the cop was standing at the bar in full uniform, then when my client walked by him
to leave, followed him out. Client was only actually going to his car
to grab his phone charger because he was going home with the bartender (like, he hadn’t
even closed his tab yet). Cop arrested him and charged him with DUI
for opening his car door, then fabricated this story for his report about how client
got in car, turned it on, and began to pull out of the space to leave the parking lot.
He also denied being inside the BWW - on the stand, under oath, to my face.
Surprise! I talked to the bartender at BWW and got the
security tape. It very clearly (like surprisingly good quality,
don’t try to steal from a BWW btw) showed cop standing at the bar, watching my client
walk out the front door, then follow him 30 seconds later.
Parking lot cam also showed client barely touched the door handle before cop stopped
him. Edit: Buffalo Wild Wings.
I apologize lol. Edit 2: since alot of people are seeing this,
I’ll add; the cop underwent an “internal review”
where the board determined he hadn’t done anything wrong.
A few months ago, he murdered an unarmed man while on patrol.
He also trains new cops now and tells young college girls he pulls over to call him “Tommy.”
Bit of a soap box: cops don’t need a reason to lie about what you say, do, or didn’t
say/do. I read hundreds of police reports - none of
them are 100% honest. Cops lie under oath ALL THE TIME - this story
is just fun cause I got to prove him wrong and save my client from a conviction.
If you are stopped by a cop for any reason, make sure you know your rights - do not offer
information. Do not consent to a search.
Do not have lengthy contact without a lawyer present or asking if you’re under arrest.
“Your honor, I have screenshots.” Not a lawyer but I played one in small claims
court. My lease had an exit clause that said if I
fronted two months’ rent, they would work to lease my place and return anything unused.
I checked with the office ahead of time, they ensured me there was a waiting list, so I
gave them the two months and moved. They never returned a dime.
I talked to the new tenant and confirmed they moved in a week later.
In court, the judge was commenting on how he didn’t see anything explicitly saying
they would return any unused rent, even though that intent was stated to me a few times.
Dumbo from the leasing office piped in with “your honor, in almost every case we can
return some money, but in this case we didn’t have a tenant in the two months after he left.”
So she gave the case back to me and I presented the affidavit from the new tenant confirming
the move in date. Judge awarded me double what they owed.
Turns out leasing office dumbos 1 and 2 thought they could lie to me and “return” my excess
rent money to themselves. Not a lawyer.
Years ago I had to do something at a strip mall in a bad part of town, took me about
20 minutes and then I found that my car had been towed.
Ubered to the tow yard. Giant sign says 'cash only'.
Had to call another Uber, drive to the ATM and back, and pay them $300-some bucks.
Got a beep hand-written receipt that, believe it or not, was itemized.
Went home, googled, found that they violated the law in three separate ways: towed illegally;
illegally refused to accept credit cards; and had multiple charges that the law called
'unreasonable' like dolly fees and load / unload fees.
Took them to small claims court. The judge began by asking the tow yard owner
about his relationship with the property owner and how the decision was made to tow my car.
"Oh," the slimy tow truck dude answered, "my cousin works there, if he says tow, I tow.
It's a hundred percent legal!" The judge's eyebrows begin to rise.
"But," the dude continued, "BUT what I detest the most your honor is this ASSHOLE claiming
I don't take credit cards. I'm a businessman!
I take credit cards all the time! He's a low life that does not have any credit
cards, that's why he wanted to pay cash!" I was having a "HOLD IT" overload, and the
judge saw me smiling and hopping in my seat and patting my manila folder of receipts.
"Do you actually not have any credit or debit cards?"
the judge asked me. I pulled out my wallet and showed him, and
then I pulled out a timestamped photo of the "CASH ONLY" sign I took the day of, and another
one I took the morning of the hearing. The guy mumbled something like "OK you got
me there" and then had nothing but "Huh, I didn't know that" when the judge asked him
about the legality of each unreasonable itemized charge.
Anyway, each violation pays double the total tow charge, and since there were three, that's
how I made $1,800 on a $300 investment. My client was accused of brutally murdering
a dog. Cop testified that there was no testing of
the blood, no body ever found, and admitted it could have, in fact, run away.
The eye witness said she could see the killing down the hallway from the dining room.
Cop testified there was no hallway and the dining room was on a different level of the
house than the killing supposedly took place. Then the person who was leading the lynch
mob against my client around town for the last year testified that she had been in the
apartment between the two visits by the cop to evaluate the scene.
No body, a compromised crime scene, witness who couldn't see anything, and admission that
there was no proof the dog was dead. Closing argument lasted 3 seconds: "Your honour,
I'm asking for an acquittal". Edit: My first award, thanks!
For those who asked - this was in Canada and received a fair bit of media attention prior
to trial. May your day be filled with joy and happiness.
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