Brian Patton

Brian November 24th, 2004

Do you ever just have one of those days? Yeah, me too. Actually, I had one of those today. Of course, I was expecting it anyway. I started out the day practicing and practicing for my trial. I went over everything one last time to make sure everything was ready.

My Professor strongly suggested in the Syllabus that if we did not use technology (i.e., PowerPoint, etc.) our grades would be reduced. This was not a big deal for me, because I enjoy using PowerPoint and have had to several times before. However, since we used one of the small courtrooms at the school for our trials, I had to “check out” a projector and a screen. Normally, this would not have been a big deal. I could have just ran by the circulation desk and grabbed the screen and projector. Unfortunately, I also had my mediation session for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) directly before the trial.

First, I thought about just getting everything and having it setup before going into ADR. Then, I thought better of that because I would have been responsible for the projector when it vanished and showed up on eBay. I ended up going through my ADR session and getting done a little early, so it turned out well. I had time to get everything checked out and setup with time to spare.

Next, was the trial. Everything went well throughout the trial. Obviously none of us were perfect or we would not have been taking the class. But I think we got through it all fairly well. Our Judge was the Honorable Randall Basinger, a Common Pleas Court Judge from Putnam, County in Ohio.

We had only six jurors for the trial. I nervously waited for them to return their verdict while the Judge and the Professor were offering us their compliments and suggestions. It felt like the Jury was deliberating for hours (really about 15 minutes). When they returned, the foreman stood up and said we are divided equally – 3 to 3. I was the plaintiff, so this meant that I had not proven my case beyond a preponderance of the evidence. The defendant and his client began celebrating and congratulating each other while I set there silently. Suddenly, somebody on the Jury reminded the Court about the Voir Dire challenges I had made in the beginning. The opposing counsel did not make any challenges and decided to keep everyone on the Jury. The Judge ask which Jurors went which way. Juror number one and Juror number three had each been challenged by me and would have not really been members of the Jury in a real trial. So, if either of them had been against me – I win. Turns out, both were against me. Thus, it was really a 3 to 1 vote, instead of a 3 to 3 vote. So, in a way, we both won.

In sum, I would like to be able to do the entire thing again knowing what I know now. However, as people say, hindsight is 20/20. I just intend to learn from my mistakes and draw on this experience once I am in practice.

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