Credibility

Last Friday closed the last chapter of volume 31 of my professional career practicing law in the area I love: trial lawyer on the side of injured people.  The recent case I tried with attorney Nolan Erickson assisting me, took all last week in Grand Rapids.  We worked on the file for over two years to put it in proper form for our jury to make their decision.  And while the jury didn’t come back with the decision we had hoped for our client, the jury system we have in the USA is the best process in the world for delivering justice.  In my experience, juries get questions of fact right at a higher percentage of the time than judges correctly address questions of law.  But I have yet to meet a judge who doesn’t try his or her best.

As I begin volume 32 today I am still learning.  Tort law provides the foundation for negligence claims, which are the type of cases I work on over 99% of the time.  The basic elements of a tort are duty, breach, proximate cause, and damages.  Although the issue of credibility of a witness is not an actual element of the claim, it does affect each and every issue presented for the jury or trier of the facts.  To me, this is a beautiful procedure to watch unfold and produce justice.  The Truth, at times, is the image of reality.  I am satisfied beyond any doubt the practice works well more often than it doesn’t.

Our next trial scheduled 5/31/16 in Adrian, once again centers around a young man unable to return to work following a motor vehicle crash.  We are ready to roll and there are no credibility issues.  Of course, there is always a chance we can reach a mutually agreeable settlement before the trial starts.  But, with the help of my outstanding staff, I prepare all my cases as though they will be tried, so I am able to settle over 96% of them at top dollar.

This post is a milestone for me.  My 1^st blog was December 7, 2007.  Since then I have published 2,500 blogs, providing safety news and measures, warnings, alerts, and hopefully helpful information.  I could not have done this without my loyal partner in these posts, Nolan Erickson.  Thank you, Nolan.  Also helpful over the last couple years is attorney Katherine Mortensen.  I am sorry to be losing her shortly to the JAG corps, but I know it is a dream come true for her and wish her well.  I would also like to thank my InjuryBoard (IB) family for making this platform of safety information available through the Legal Examiner.  Next week in Florida I will be attending the ROI 2016 conference.  It is somewhat ironic that Garrett M. Graff will once again be the opening keynote speaker.  He inspired me to start this blogging venture during my 1^st IB meeting in the fall of 2007 when he was featured as the keynote speaker back then, just coming off the Howard Dean Campaign.  Web 2.0 had just been born.

Finally a big “Thank You!” to all of you who have taken the time to read, recommend, comment, and connect with me as a result of these blogs.  Be well and stand by for #2,501, coming soon.