Work Work Work, Work Work Work

“I’m texting Eric,” you sighed. “Just to make sure he knows where we’re at.”

“OK,” Sabrina said. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, half a dozen documents piled around her as she chewed on the end of a pencil. “Ask him if he can get together sometime tomorrow afternoon for final planning. We’ll make dinner.”

“Here?” you asked.

That got her to look up and then hesitate. “Um,” she said, looking around. It wasn’t exactly the cleanest it had ever been, and her camera equipment was out. “We can’t do Gemma’s because of Lucy. Do you think we could do yours?”

“I’ll text Mosche to see if he’ll be in or out tomorrow, and hint it would be great if he could give us a few hours,” you said.

“Thank you,” Sabrina nodded.

You started your texting, using it as a break from skimming documents. On the bright side, after all your keyword searching while digitising and sorting files at the internship, you were pretty fast at skimming both physical and digital copies for content. The downside was the sheer number of documents included in the resource package for the mock trial.

“Ugh,” Gemma grunted as she came out of Sabrina’s bedroom. She’d been pacing as she read through the opening statement you’d put together with her, repeating it out loud to get it down.

“Which part?” you asked.

“The paragraph about how our client feels for the troubles of the plaintiff, but is bound to the contractual limitations around the payout,” Gemma said. “It just sounds kind of… evil, coming out of my mouth? Like ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ shit. And I know it’s literally true because not following the contracts down to the letter would open up so many issues, but it’s also like - the company has so much money.”

“Holy fuck,” Sabrina blurted out.

“What?” Gemma asked. “Am I being that soft?”

“No,” Sabrina said, standing up and starting to pace herself as she flipped back and forth between two different pages. “Just- Let me read a second.”

You and Gemma looked at each other, raising your eyebrows as you waited for Sabrina to piece together whatever she’d found. Gemma pursed her lips, and you gestured for her to come over to you at the kitchen table. She did, sitting on your lap and looping an arm around your shoulder for stability as she leaned in and kissed you softly.

“OK,” Sabrina said, coming over and thrusting the papers she was holding. “Read this paragraph. And then read this one on this page.”

You held the document as you and Gemma started reading. It was from the depositions of the witnesses of the accidents and seemed like just a general eyewitness account. Then, when Gemma nodded that she’d finished as well, you flipped to the other page. Another deposition, another account. Some of the details were different, but that was sort of to be expected in eyewitness testimony.

“I don’t get it,” you said.

“Yeah, I’m not seeing what you’re seeing, love,” Gemma said.

“The first one is the deposition of Mr Garret Smith,” Sabrina said. “He’s one of the first people who got deposed because he was identified in the police reports as one of the people to call it into 911. His account of things lands more on our side, with the signs of erratic driving right before the accident, and he performed CPR as a first aid responder before the ambulances arrive so he comes across as a really reliable witness. The other account is from Doctor Vivian Brookes, and lands on the other side, saying there wasn’t any erratic driving or anything. But here’s the thing - they were both in the same car.”

You blinked. “What?”

“How?” Gemma asked.

“It was buried in the witness profiles,” Sabrina said. “Garret Smith is going through a rough divorce with his wife but was only separated a month after the date of the accident. Dr Vivian Brookes is also listed as separated, but not that she’s going through a divorce. There’s no way to know that they were in the same car except-” She flipped the document back to Smith’s deposition. “For this one line here where he mentions leaving his wife in the car and being frustrated that she wouldn’t come help even though she had medical training. I think Vivian was the wife, and she changed her story just to spite Garret and not let him look like a hero.”

“Well… shit,” Gemma said. “If it’s true, we can straight up nuke Vivian as a reliable witness.”

“And she’s pretty much their strongest eyewitness to the actual crash,” Sabrina said. “I mean, who expects the Doctor to lie under oath? Or to refuse to do first aid when her husband goes to help?”

“OK, we already have Smith on our witness list, and assume Dr Brookes will be on theirs,” you said. “Let’s note that we need to develop a new line of questioning for Brookes and keep going. If they hid one thing, there’s bound to be others. We just need to make sure we aren’t chasing red herrings.”

“Good job, baby,” Gemma said, standing up from your lap and grabbing Sabrina, pulling her into a kiss. “That’s awesome work.”

“Thanks," Sabrina grinned, grabbing Gemma’s butt and giving it a teasing squeeze. “Now, how about we wordsmith that ‘evil’ paragraph?”

The three of you got back to work, and you started looking more closely at where the inconsistencies were. The root of the case really came down to the clauses in the actual insurance contracts, so you focused on the names and circumstances to make sure they were airtight.

“I found a problem,” you sighed, your heart dropping as you triple-checked the names involved.

Gemma and Sabrina had been sitting over on the couch, having finished the rewording issue and making sure it flowed well into the next paragraph as Gemma read it out loud. “What is it?” Sabrina asked.

“I’m pretty sure Jacobs’ insurance contract is brokered by his brother-in-law,” you said. “The contract itself is pretty airtight, but they can make a case that Jacobs just signed whatever was put in front of him trusting a relative and didn’t know about the extra stipulations he signed on to so that his rates could get reduced.”

“Shit,” Sabrina said.

“Hold on, that might not matter,” Gemma said, standing up and heading to grab her laptop from the bedroom. “It’s a line of attack on us for sure, but if we can set up the right defence we could probably neutralise it. It shouldn’t be that hard to find some case law about having acknowledged you’ve read the Terms of Service without actually reading it.”

“Good idea,” you said. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all, love,” Gemma said with a grin. “You keep looking for those loopholes, I’ll do the research.”

“God, I love you two,” Sabrina said from her spot on the couch.

“How long before you need to take a break and film?” Gemma asked with a smile.

“Any time now, probably?” Sabrina hedged and then looked at you. “Need a fuck-break, baby?”

“Let me finish going through the contracts,” you said with a laugh. “And I’ll be ready for whatever you want to throw at me.”

“Clown nose and shoes it is!” Sabrina grinned.

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