Mock Trial Part Ten; The Mechanic

“What do you mean?” the ‘Mechanic’ asked. He was being played by one of the associates from the firm - you were pretty sure his name was Chuck… something.

“A previous witness has identified the plaintiff's vehicle as being adorned with a fabric hood cover depicting the American flag,” Eric said. “When you were examining the vehicle, did you see any signs of that?”

“Oh,” the ‘Mechanic’ said. “Huh. Was that what those fabric scraps and the twine were?”

Eric raised his eyebrows. “Could you expand on what you did see in that area?”

“Um, yeah,” he said. “The front end had some damage to the front bumper on both sides, but the actual hood and engine block were - most of the damage was on the sides and rear of the minivan. When it got to me the hood had a piece of twine looping around it near the back of it closest to the windshield, and that had scraps of fabric stuck to it. That could have been what you’re describing if it had been-”

“Objection,” Samantha said quickly. “Witness is speculating, Your Honour.”

“Sustained,” Judge Mathews nodded, turning to the ‘mechanic.’ “Please keep your answers to only what you actually saw.”

“Yes, Your Honour,” the ‘mechanic agreed.

“Thank you, Your Honour,” both Eric and Samantha said.

“You said you found twine looped around the hood,” Eric continued his questioning. “Is this something you’ve ever come across before?”

“Not that I can remember,” the ‘Mechanic’ answered.

“But your report didn’t include it,” Eric said. “Why was that?”

“Well, it didn’t look like it was some sort of repair job because it wasn’t actually attached to anything,” he answered. “And it didn’t look like damage, necessarily. At least not to the body of the vehicle.”

“In your expert opinion,” Eric said. “Would you consider the loop of twine and the fabric to have likely gotten to the position you found it during the accident, or would it have needed to be placed there deliberately?”

Samantha clearly wanted to object again, but you could tell she wasn’t sure for what. The plaintiffs had introduced the Mechanic as an expert witness on the vehicle, they couldn’t call him into question now.

“It would have needed to be placed there deliberately,” the ‘mechanic’ answered.

“Thank you so much for your time, sir,” Eric said. “No further questions for this witness, Your Honour.”

Again, Eric and your team had managed to divert what seemed to be a key witness for the plaintiffs into one for your defence. The insurance policy was airtight unless they managed to find something utterly wild to challenge it, and now you had double confirmation that the Jacobs’ had modified their vehicle with cosmetic additions. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs had managed to paint the Jacobs in a decent light in terms of their character at the scene of the accident, and confirmed that the vehicle was a write-off and should have been replaced if their policy was valid. They’d also brought into question, possibly, that the Jacobs had signed the policy without knowing the details but you had already submitted case law in your opening motions that should have negated that issue, not that the plaintiffs were necessarily aware of that.

Amanda didn’t redirect the witness, so the Mechanic was excused and you could see Judge Mathews checking his watch. “Alright, we’re reaching the end of day,” he said. “We’ll pick up again tomorrow at 9:30 AM. Court is now adjourned.” He tapped his gavel and stood up, straightening his suit jacket and sighing.

It felt a little early to have wrapped it up for the day, but you guessed that as a retired Judge he either had other things going on in the evening… or he just wanted to enjoy being retired. You, Eric and the girls quickly started packing away your folders and notes and the Plaintiff team was doing the same. Just as you were finishing up Garrison came up on stage and over to you all.

“Interesting work today,” he said with a slight smirk, not wanting to give you any encouragement or correction one way or the other. “You’ve still got… about an hour left in your regular work day, but don’t worry about coming to the office. I assume you’ll be reviewing and revising your case this evening?” You all nodded - things had gone well, but there were still plenty of pitfalls left to go. “Alright. Then take the rest of the afternoon for that, and be here bright and early tomorrow. No special rental rides now that you know where we’re meeting.”

“The space really is interesting, sir,” you said. “But you talk about it with a sort of nostalgia - did you used to work here or something?”

Garrison’s easy smirk got a bit bigger. “Something like that,” he said. “But those are stories for when you aren’t my interns. Just remember that you’re making your case on a historical stage.”

He left the four of you, but you didn’t even have a chance to discuss anything before Tucker and Samantha were crossing over from their table.

“So,” Tucker said with an easy smile. “Hard first day for you folks, but that’s how Trials go.”

That one had you blinking in mild confusion. Had he been paying attention all day?

“Now that you’ve seen just the basics of our case, we thought it would be fair to open up for another settlement offer,” Samantha said self-righteously. “We can bring this whole thing to a close without embarrassing your client any further.”

“I’m sorry,” Gemma said. “What part of today was embarrassing for our client?”

“They’re the big bad wolf taking out their greed on our clients,” Tucker said. “It’s an old story, and I’m sure the Judge is seeing right through it. But we’ve already shown that your client negotiated in bad faith through familial connections to the Jacobs, misrepresented the policy, and you haven’t done a thing to prove that the Jacobs’ deserved to have their policy revoked.”

“We’d be willing to waive damages,” Samantha said. “Just fulfil the policy and pay the legal fees, and our clients can walk away whole.”

Sabrina stood up and leaned forward, planting her hands on the table as she looked at the two of them. “If you bring another ridiculous demand for a settlement again, we’ll bring it up to the Judge,” she said. “We have made it clear that our client is not interested in settling when we are certain that your clients are in breach of contract. If you believe that today went well for you, and would like to continue billing hours to your client whom we are most certain will be paying for them in the end, then I suggest you wait to make comments about our case until after we have actually made it. Now please, allow us to move on about our day.”

Tucker, who’d been at least fronting a cocky smirk, started scowling. “You have to at least present the offer to your client.”

“Sure,” Sabrina said. “Let me call them.” She pulled her phone out of her purse, tapped her finger on the blank screen while making ‘boop-boop’ noises, and then held it up to her ear. “Yes, DeLittle insurance? It’s your lawyers. We’ve been offered a settlement where we pay a bunch of money to someone who you’re sure is in the wrong. Would you like to take it? No? OK, I’ll let them know.” She lowered the phone. “I don’t think they’re going to take it.”

“You don’t need to make a mockery of this mock trial,” Samantha scoffed.

Gemma raised a hand, looking like she wanted to say something, but just sighed and shook her head.

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