If you need a recap of yesterday please look here: http://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=4206009&mc=91&forum_id=2

Today Chandler put on Plaintiff's entire case. He started off with opening. His opening statement was about four times longer than the defense opening. The judge was super anal about being argumentative and preemptively stopped Chandler a couple times because he thought Chandler was about to make an argument (Chandler was trying to get in little digs at defense). Opening was really good. He talked about her miscarriage and how that interrupted her treatment.

Chandler then played our expert's video in lieu of live testimony. We have been trying these cases on a very small budget and I think it works really well. Basically when defense deposes our expert we join the deposition notice and then film the deposition. We then play the deposition of the ortho instead of calling him to trial. This saves about $10,000 since we don't need to pay the ortho for a half day of testimony. The ortho is the same guy that Chandler used in his last trial and he presents well. He gave us very good numbers for medical costs, stated our client had a shoulder tear, and opined that she needed surgery at a cost of $40,000.

Defense was going to use a billing expert to give an opinion that the meds were too high but they decided last minute not to call her. Their ortho designation did not indicate he was testifying about costs, so he won't be able to when they call him. Not sure what their strategy is here.

The defense radiologist was then called (since he was only available today). The radiologist gave the opinion that the MRI does not show a shoulder tear. Chandler did not challenge him on the medicine (which our ortho already disagreed with), but instead attacked his credibility. He got the radiologist to admit he does 95% defense work and that his opinions are mostly the same. He also asked him to name a single plaintiff's firm he worked with in the past and he could not name one. He came across as a defense whore.

Chandler then had my paralegal and her husband testify. She was very nervous and did poorly in the first half of her testimony because she came across very robotic. She said all the right things, but just was too monotone. At break he prepped her more and she did great the second half. She indicated that she was taking pain medication all the time and that when she found out she was pregnant she had to stop because she was a high risk pregnancy (from her stillbirth). So she had to spend 9 months in pain without medication. It was a great way to get the story in.

Her husband did a good job testifying. He was friendly and likable and said all the right things about how the pain impacted their relationship, home life, and his wife's pregnancy.

Finally, the defense played their bio mechanic's video. He lives out of state and was unable to attend trial. The clips were about 90 minutes and half the jury looked like they were falling asleep. Of course he stated that the forces of the accident were the same as sitting down in a chair. It will really come down to whether they believe my client or not. In closing Chandler is going to talk about the fact that they had to go to a different state just to find someone who would agree with them.

The court is dark tomorrow. On Monday defense will call their ortho and then both sides will do their closing. We should have a verdict by Tuesday. We are really glad the case isn't finishing tomorrow because closing right before a week tends to make jurors rush their decision so they don't have to come back. And that usually means a defense verdict.

Taking questions.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4206872&forum_id=2#37824369)

good write up albeit sadly tardy, son.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4206872&forum_id=2#37824410)

If causation is weak why was it hard for defense to find an expert?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4206872&forum_id=2#37824416)