Plaintiff Rests

“Plaintiff rests, Your Honour,” Tucker said. The tall blond cheerleader didn’t look happy about it, and you could understand why. He and Samantha had brought another settlement offer to your team as you’d been eating lunch together - they rejected Sabrina’s previous lowball offer and asked for half of the original policy and legal fees. That was still over a million dollars and might have actually been worth it off the top of the trial, but it was way too late now. You all knew that poor Thomas had run up against a brick wall with his plans, and you were left wondering if the three stronger personalities had all been riding on their individual egos.

“Defence,” Judge Mathews said. “You may call your first witness.”

“Actually, Your Honour,” Eric said, standing up. “At this point in time, we would like to file a motion to Dismiss. May I approach?”

Judge Mathews agreed, and Eric delivered a couple of copies of his new motion to the Plaintiff table before moving to speak with the Judge. After a momentarily whispered squabble at the other table, Samantha followed him. Eric handed over his copy of the motion to the Judge and explained himself, there was a quiet conversation as Samantha argued, and then they were both sent back.

“We’ll have a fifteen-minute recess while I digest the motion,” Judge Mathews said.

Eric came back to the table smirking. “He shut her down,” he whispered as he took his seat.

“Any hints on if he is actually considering it?” Sabrina asked.

“Not really, other than that he accepted it at all,” Eric sighed. Then he nodded back down the table and you all turned to see Tucker approaching us.

“We’ll take your last settlement offer,” he said bluntly.

“Yeah, no,” Gemma shook her head. “That isn’t on the table anymore.”

“You didn’t put a time limit on it,” he argued. “And you didn’t give notice it was rescinded.”

“You rejected it twenty minutes ago and made a counteroffer,” you said. “That ends the offer.”

“Well, make it again and we’ll accept,” Tucker said. “We can get this thing wrapped up now before he tosses your motion and we spend another day and a half on this, racking up legal fees your client will end up paying.”

“My guy,” Sabrina said. “Do you think you have any leverage at this point? You should probably read the motion.”

He got a sour look on his face.

“Wait,” Gemma said. “Are you… are you going to cry?”

“What? No,” he scoffed. “Fuck off.”

“Mr Jackson,” boomed Judge Mathews from the bench. Tucker, getting agitated, had raised his voice a little and had probably been easy to hear. “That sort of language is entirely inappropriate in my court. That will be a $5,000 sanction, which I’ll be happy to allow you to pay to one of the non-profits on my eligible list.”

Tucker’s jaw worked but no sound came out.

“Go sit down, son,” Judge Mathews said, turning off his ‘Judge’ voice but still sounding serious. “You won’t actually be paying the sanction because this is a mock trial, but take it as a warning - don’t tell people to ‘fuck off’ in front of a Judge, especially in their courtroom.”

“Um, yes sir, Your Honour,” Tucker said, then rushed back to the Plaintiff's table where he was met with furious whispers.

“Think we can get one of them to call us a bitch, next?” Gemma said quietly, getting the three of you to cover your mouths as you tried not to chuckle.

The fifteen-minute recess dragged on. The lawyers in the audience, about fifteen in all from both firms, were chatting quietly but you resisted the urge to glance back there. You had to wonder what Garrison thought of putting in another motion to dismiss at this point - would he see it the same as making a powerful settlement claim? Or would he be disappointed that you skated by without actually needing to make yoour own case?

You and the other traded some looks, but mostly stayed quiet after the Tucker incident. You could tell Gemma was feeling confident, and Sabrina was putting up that front too but had some nerves going - she felt like she had even more on the line since she’d been ‘in charge’ of your team. Eric wasn’t hiding his own nerves, his leg bouncing under the table as he tapped agitatedly at his phone in between glancing over at the judge.

Finally, Judge Mathews cleared his throat as he straightened the papers of his copy of the motion, then tapped his gavel to call the court back to order. “Plaintiff’s counsel, I find the Defence’s motion to be quite convincing. Thoughts?”

“Your Honour,” Samantha said, standing up quickly. “This frivolous motion is a waste of time. We have clearly shown that not only were our clients not responsible for the accident that caused a claim on their policy, but they acted as Good Samaritans during the incident in question. Further, our client’s understanding of the outrageously unusual terms of their policy is dubiously supported at best - a failing on the part of the DeLittle Insurance employees and partners. We believe that if anything, you should be making your summary judgement in favour of our clients immediately.”

“An interesting speech, Miss Van Der Groot,” Judge Mathews said. “But it had absolutely nothing to do with the reasoning of the motion at hand. You did read the motion, yes?”

“Um, of course, Your Honour,” Samantha said. She didn’t exactly go pale, but she did look uncomfortable. You could understand why - she’d made the best case she thought she could, cramming in a miniature version of what would have been their closing argument. The problem for them was that Eric had done a great job of shredding the shenanigans and pushing through to the heart of the issue; they had done nothing to counteract the terms of the policy and the fact that their clients had broken them.

“Well, while it certainly cuts our proceedings short, I believe I must rule in favour of the Defense. Motion is carried, and the case is dismissed with prejudice. Congratulations, Counsel, you have completed the scenario.”

You, Gemma, Sabrina and Eric all let out a heavy exhalation as the audience behind you started a light applause.

It was done. You’d won.

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