In the morning, we heard closing arguments. The defense went first. Each took about half an hour. I though both summations were too long and went into the weeds on evidence and other details. Both attorneys were a bit nervous - the plaintiff’s attorney more so than the defendants’. 

In fact, both were nervous during much of the trial. Again, the plaintiff’s attorney seemed the more nervous. He was constantly fiddling with his pen during examinations of witnesses. While the defendant’s attorney seemed calmer in general, we could be seen manhandling a paperclip when seated as his table. It is apparent that being a trial lawyer is a difficult job and I do not wish to have it. 

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Today the mystery witness testified. This is a person who has been referred to often throughout the trial but who was notably missing in person. I guess the defense decided to leave it until near the end.

The witness was material to the case - someone directly involved but not a defendant. I was very much struck by how good he/she was at this.

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I’ll just go ahead and say it: I have formed my opinion. I shouldn’t be saying this at all, since the first thing you’re told is “wait until you’ve heard all the evidence”. Well, I have a human brain, so to hell with that.

I am open to persuasion, of course, but in my head I’ve removed the irrelevancies and walked through what remains to arrive at a conclusion. There’s another day or so of testimony and then deliberation, during which I still intend to be critical and open-minded, so we’ll see if that’s where I wind up on Wednesday.

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In my post on day 2, I wondered how attorneys find expert witnesses to testify. I find out today that some dude is following my twitter feed who works for an expert witness location service. I guess that answers that. Now why the hell is he follwing me?

Some interesting things happened today.

First, the plaintiff’s counsel read in to evidence some material from the defendant’s deposition. This took the form of the plaintiff’s attorney standing at the podium, reading the questions in the deposition and a law student (who has been present with the plaintiff’s attorney throughout the trial) sitting in the witness box reading the answers. 

It was a very dry and soulless kind of theater. Only some portions of the deposition (mercifully) were read. 

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This was an interesting day. Yesterday, you could start to see the building blocks of the arguments that each side was going to pursue. Today you could see them putting those blocks together and starting to shape them a bit. 

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I am currently sitting on a jury for a civil lawsuit. I will not discuss the case (duh), but I will make some observations about this experience, which is growing in interest by the day (yes, I know it’s the first day).

Firstly, everything that you see happen on film and television actually happens, though it is usually with much less drama and takes much, much longer.

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I was called to jury duty today. I have been empanelled and will be enjoying a trial over the next several days. More on that experience (in a roundabout manner) later. For now, I present some helpful tips for the prospective juror in the state of Massachusetts on your day of service:

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