My response to The Wall Street Journals article on: "Lawyers Behaving Badly Get A Dressing Down From Civility Cops".
In his plea for damages for the permanent disfigurement of his client, the story goes that a Hartford area lawyer decades ago got up for closing argument and sang a few bars of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face to the jury. It was not the stormy rhetoric that you often see in TV dramas.
Early in my career, in the 70's, I was suing the manufacturer for what we claimed was a defective truck that my client was driving when a crash occurred killing a passenger in a car her truck hit. My clients physical injury was limited to difficulty with her hand which caused her to drop things. Yet her emotional injury from the allegations that it was her negligence that caused the crash, and the death of the innocent passenger, were very real. I was young and new in the office, it was considered a small case because the physical and medical damages (what we call hard damages) were small. So they gave it to the new kid, me 40 years ago. When it came time for closing argument I stood, dropped a piece of paper and said what do think Joyce (name changed here) relived each time she dropped something because of her injury on that awful day. I sat down. The jury understood and rendered a verdict for ten times the amount the judge had suggested my client should take in settlement. I was hooked, trying cases was challenging and rewarding. I could have done a closing argument filled with anger and frustration with the truck manufacturer, but I sensed a better approach was to be sure the Jury truly understood the nature of my clients ongoing injury.
Stormy rhetoric makes good TV, and sometimes it is critical in a court room or in a negotiation. But more times than not civility and caring are the tools a lawyer should be using to persuade the other side in a negotiation/mediation or the Jury in a trial. Unfortunately many of our lawyers and possibly our society have lost a real understanding of what it takes to earn the respect and understanding of others. Lack of civility is a serious problem that bar associations have been trying to deal with.
In his plea for damages for the permanent disfigurement of his client, the story goes that a Hartford area lawyer decades ago got up for closing argument and sang a few bars of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face to the jury. It was not the stormy rhetoric that you often see in TV dramas.
Early in my career, in the 70's, I was suing the manufacturer for what we claimed was a defective truck that my client was driving when a crash occurred killing a passenger in a car her truck hit. My clients physical injury was limited to difficulty with her hand which caused her to drop things. Yet her emotional injury from the allegations that it was her negligence that caused the crash, and the death of the innocent passenger, were very real. I was young and new in the office, it was considered a small case because the physical and medical damages (what we call hard damages) were small. So they gave it to the new kid, me 40 years ago. When it came time for closing argument I stood, dropped a piece of paper and said what do think Joyce (name changed here) relived each time she dropped something because of her injury on that awful day. I sat down. The jury understood and rendered a verdict for ten times the amount the judge had suggested my client should take in settlement. I was hooked, trying cases was challenging and rewarding. I could have done a closing argument filled with anger and frustration with the truck manufacturer, but I sensed a better approach was to be sure the Jury truly understood the nature of my clients ongoing injury.
Stormy rhetoric makes good TV, and sometimes it is critical in a court room or in a negotiation. But more times than not civility and caring are the tools a lawyer should be using to persuade the other side in a negotiation/mediation or the Jury in a trial. Unfortunately many of our lawyers and possibly our society have lost a real understanding of what it takes to earn the respect and understanding of others. Lack of civility is a serious problem that bar associations have been trying to deal with.
