The Trial of the Century - That NEVER HAPPENED

If A Trial Never Happens, but the Trial is Still Scheduled and All Parties but One Know What is Going On, Was There Still A Trial?

I arrive in court on time and ready to go. I spent the previous few days going through transcripts, preparing for the witnesses who will be called. I concentrated on the injuries and the medicals and even spent some time on the internet researching L5-S1 disk bulges and radiculopathy. 2 hours later my case is called to the Judge's clerk (they like to conference these things first). Myself and three other attorneys sit down before the clerk. The clerk remembers one attorney from a previous meeting and the other he is on a first name basis with. I am the only person in the room who is new. Nevertheless, the clerk asks me what the case is about and has me explain the injuries.

When I was finished, the attorney who is on a first named basis with the clerk asks me, rather pointadly, how I expect to get through threshold with the little injuries I have. My response, you should have brought that issue up before - because you are already beyond the Rules of Procedure's statute of limitations for such a motion. Then he shrugs and follows up with another question: "How can you blame this accident on my client when there was no contact with his vehicle." My response: "Your driver failed to securly fastion luggage on the top of his vehicle as evidenced by it falling onto the Van Wyck Highway and three cars having to swerve out of the way." He just looked at me, so I told him that that issue should be left to the jury.

The clerk asked me questions about the driver of the vehicle, who happens to be the brother of my client. I told him that we did not sue him, but I know that one of the other parties brought him in. However, I did not have an answer from the brother and none of the attorneys would admit that they are representing that man as well (most of these guys were here just to get through this stage and would not handle the trial anyways). I told the clerk that there had been some movement on the settlement of the case, but not nearly where I would like it. He suggested that we give it a few more weeks to work through these issues and then come back on April 19 - ug...by that point I will have forgotten all this! I had no choice, so I went back to the office and thought about what I would have been doing on Sunday had I not prepared for the trial that never happened - thank goodness for TiVo!!

Can anyone guess where these pictures came from?