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I Learned About Lawyering From That Lesson in a Parking Lot By Br a d gi n d e r W hen asked by John Derrick for a “war story” that taught me a lesson about lawyering, I thought of several humorous stories without much lesson and many tedious ones with too much lesson. Here’s one in between. I was walking to my car from a courtroom in Ventura after the final day of testimony in a wrongful-death jury trial. A colleague, Mack Staton, and I were representing, respectively, the husband of the decedent (“Mr. P”) and the decedent’s young sons from an earlier marriage. The potential for a possible conflict over verdict apportionment caused Mack and me to believe that the survivors would be best represented by separate counsel. We also thought that trying the case together would be fun. Trying cases should always be enjoyable. Mack was walking next to me discussing the day in court as I noticed that our clients were about 50 yards ahead of us and also walking to the parking lot through the courthouse corridor. As we walked, three jurors in our case emerged from the ladies’ restroom ahead of us. They turned down the corridor toward the parking lot, walking about 20 yards behind our clients. Mack stopped talking or I stopped listening. I don’t remember. I remember only silence, the uneasy silence that sometimes precedes disaster. The corridor seemed to get longer as the jurors — out of our hearing range — talked among themselves and appeared to recognize that the plaintiffs in their case walked ahead of them. They did not seem aware that we were in the courthouse exodus behind them. The parking lot was filled with cars. As we approached the end of the corridor, it seemed plain that very soon our clients and the three jurors would head in different directions in search of their automobiles and I would be enjoying again my conversation with Mack. That didn’t happen. The situation could have been avoided by discussing places for parking before trial, and then learning of the handicap permit and evaluating whether it was really necessary to use. I had never seen Mr. P’s car before that day. I had not talked to Mr. P or the boys about parking at the courthouse. A tall, fitlooking man in his early 50s, Mr. P walked without a limp as he led the boys to his car — parked in the stall closest to the courthouse, reserved for the handicapped. The heads of the three jurors swiveled back and forth between each other as their surprised and annoyed expressions informed us that it may not be necessary to spend more time discussing how to apportion a plaintiffs’ verdict. It appeared that a healthy and limber Mr. P had cheated and had taken advantage of a reserved parking place to which he had no entitlement. Gamed the system. Not a good image while the jury is out. In truth, he had sustained a knee injury many years earlier (not relevant in the case) for which he had a handicap parking permit, which, he explained to us later, was on the dashboard. At the moment, I could have yelled, “Mr. P, that’s not your car!” But auto theft was neither true nor a better image. The situation could have been avoided by discussing places for parking before trial, and then learning of the handicap permit and evaluating whether it was really necessary to use. If so, address it during trial. The lesson: Jury trials for clients begin each day when they leave the house and continue until they return home and close the door behind them. It’s not just in and around the courtroom where you might expect jurors to see or hear clients. This lesson has informed me to instruct clients that from voir dire through verdict, they must assume that one or more jurors are watching whatever he or she does, wherever her or she is. I now take clients to the courtroom before trial so they are familiar with the setting. If possible, I have them sit in the jury box so that they can see the surroundings from the jurors’ perspective. And I discuss parking. Brad Ginder is a partner at Hollister & Brace and has been a trial lawyer for 35 years. 14 Santa Barbara Lawyer Brad Ginder
February 2010 15
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