Mock Trial Part Four; Plaintiff Opening Statement

Surprisingly, it wasn’t Tucker or Samantha who stood up to give the Opening Statement for the Plaintiffs. The two of them had been dominating and, honestly, a little domineering in how they seemed to act within their group dynamic. If it wasn’t them, you would have expected it to be Amanda - the large-breasted woman seemed to be fairly normal compared to her compatriots despite her unordinary physical feature.

It wasn’t here either though. Thomas, the mousy guy with the bad posture, was the one who stood up and came around their table into the space between the lawyers and the Bench.

“May it please the Court, Your Honour,” he said, and then cleared his voice. He was holding some cue cards loosely in one hand. “Our clients, Randy and Felise Jacobs, have been unfairly targeted by the underhanded tactics of the DeLittle Insurance Company, who have refused to meet their contractual obligations in regards to the Jacobs insurance policy. This case has reached your court despite attempts at mediation as DeLittle Insurance has stubbornly maintained their intolerable stance that the Jacob’s policy was breached despite no evidence to the contrary.”

Thomas wasn’t a bad speaker, but you could tell that he was already starting to work himself up a bit. His language usage was flowery and accusatory, and he’d already pointed accusingly over at your table a couple of times whenever he name-dropped your ‘client.’

“The facts of the case are straightforward, your Honour,” Thomas continued. “The evidence will show that Randy and Felise Jacobs, on March 11th, 2014, set about their day as usual in the full belief that their insurance coverage was reasonable and intact, with no fear that they would be left adrift and facing financial ruin by the end of the day. Then, at 3:13 in the afternoon on Highway 17 outside the town of Settlesby, they were embroiled in a seven-car pileup - suffering minor wounds, grievous mental trauma, and leading to their family vehicle, which was fully insured by DeLittle Insurance, to be deemed a total wreck.”

Up until that point in his statement, Thomas was fairly on point with the details other than the actual point of contention - that the Jacobss had cheaped out on their policy for a lower monthly rate, and that there had been several circumstantial issues with both their vehicle and their actions.

Thomas wasn’t done, though. He played up the mental trauma of being in a car wreck and then made it seem like his client’s dealings with the Insurance company were belaboured and aggressive from the start. Based on the transcripts of the various calls made between Randy Jacobs and DeLittle that wasn’t the case, but it was certainly one way to describe things in their favour. You didn’t think it was a winning strategy since Judge Mathews would know whether it was true or not, but it was their case to make.

He went on to identify the witnesses they intended to call, namely the original Insurance Broker who made up the policy for them and processed it, several witnesses from the day of the accident whose depositions claimed the accident couldn’t have been the Jacobs’ fault, and a former DeLittle employee who was claiming that it was a company policy to deny claims in multi-car accidents whenever possible.

He then spun into his conclusion, his voice raising both in volume and slightly in pitch, as he went into the burden of proof being a preponderance of the evidence - or 51% likely it favoured the Plaintiffs and not the defendants. He then re-stated his theory of the case, which should have been a fairly succinct telling, but he was rolling and didn’t seem to be stopping. You were reminded of the old Charlie Chaplin film The Great Dictator - you’d gotten to watch and study it in a Political Theory course in your second year at University; in it, Charlie Chaplin got mistaken for the ‘definitely not Hitler’ fascist leader of a fictional country and put in front of a crowd of ‘definitely not Nazis’ with the chance to make one speech to inspire them back to the side of humanity. Chaplin’s speech was masterful in its delivery, and worth studying because it really did follow the patterns of Hitler (and other famous inspirational orators, good and evil), and even without a backing track of epic music you could feel the rising passion behind it.

Thomas was doing that, except… petulantly. You couldn’t know for sure if it was on purpose or not, but he was building and building as he ranted about the injustice of modern corporate greed and how it was sucking the lifeblood from the little people it was meant to serve. He reached his fever pitch, accusingly pointing at you again, declaring that you were making a mockery of the law itself by seeking to make the very basis of the legal system, contract law, moot and unenforceable.

“So, by God, Your Honour,” he said. “For these reasons, after you have heard all the evidence, at the end of this trial we will ask you to return a verdict in favour of not only Randy and Felise Jacobs but of all the little people who have been churned up and spit out by this machine they have created. A verdict in favour of fairness, and equity, and all that is good in this world!”

He stopped, panting heavily, a fist raised like he’d been giving a battlefield speech. His pose said he was expecting applause, though you couldn’t see his face since he was facing the judge.

OK, Gemma wrote on the notepad in front of her, pointing it towards you. Garrison was right. If I had tried to give that sort of speech I’d look like an idiot.

“Thank you, Mr Malberry,” Judge Mathews said. “For that… impassioned statement.”

Thomas dropped his fist, nodding to the Judge, and returned to his seat. His neck and cheeks were red from his effort, and there was sweat on his brow. He’d gone on for about fifteen minutes.

“Alright, I think that brings us close enough to our morning break,” the Judge said. “We’ll kick back off with the Defence’s opening statement in fifteen minutes.” He tapped his gavel lightly, signalling that the session was in recess, and then cleared his throat. “No need for us to go through all the ceremony every time I get up. Garrison, I believe you mentioned there would be refreshments for the break?”

“They should be out in the lobby now, your Honour,” Garrison called from the gallery behind you.

“Excellent,” Judge Mathews said, standing up and coming around from his bench. “Fifteen minutes folks!”

You could hear the lawyers behind you all standing up and talking with each other, and the Judge headed down off the stage, but both your table and the opposition huddled up.

“That was something,” Eric said quietly. “I thought he was going to pop a gasket.”

“He overplayed it way too far,” Sabrina whispered. “Unless Mathews is good at hiding the fact that he likes dramatics, I think that whole schtick definitely hurt them. Gemma, just do exactly how we practised it and you’ll make us look like sane, normal, professionals.”

“Absolutely,” Gemma agreed. “I-”

“Excuse us,” Samantha said, interrupting your discussion as she and Thomas came over from their table. Thomas was still red, the flush slowly fading, but at least he’d wiped the sweat from his brow. “Now that you’ve seen the strength of our case, we’re giving you one last chance to submit a settlement offer to our clients.”

All four of you glanced at each other, and you had to suppress the urge to laugh. Sabrina turned back to them. “No, we’re good,” she said.

“Are you kidding me?” Thomas asked, clearly surprised as the proud smirk dropped from his face. “I just took this case and turned it into an indictment of the entire insurance system. We’ll make you defend every gross little detail and manipulation insurance companies use to take advantage of people.”

Sabrina pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow for a moment. “OK,” she said. “You can go ahead and make that case, and we’ll make ours. Good luck.”

Samantha looked like she wanted to say something biting, but clamped her mouth shut and they both turned and stalked back to their table.

Sabrina turned back to you and the others. “They can try all they want to make this about ‘big insurance’ or whatever,” she said. “We keep our eyes on the prize. Our client, our case. That’s all we need for a win.”

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