Credibility Of The Plaintiff's Attorney example essay topic

The Decision to Litigate. The in-class video and lecture identified a number of factors that should be considered when making this decision. They include 1.) Trials are expensive and lengthy. Someone has to pay the costs.

2.) What is the like hood of recovery? 3.) Are the defendants able to satisfy the judgement? 4.) Will a suit impact the relationship between the defendant (s) and 5.) Will harmful publicity or loss of goodwill result? In the movie, the decision to go to trial was based on the attorney's greed. Though that was not the initial decision, once Schlictmann saw Beatrice Foods and linked it to "Peter Pan, Tropicana, Samsonite, etc". You could see the dollar signs in his eyes.

From that point forward all manpower and resources were allocated to this one case. None of the plaintiffs in the film appeared to have the financial resources to support a decision to litigate, nor did the firm representing them. Towards the end of the trial, the firm was so heavily in debt over the case they filled out multiple applications for credit cards. They also had second mortgaged their homes, cashed in their "retirement plans, life insurance plans, gone".

The firm had completely overextended themselves in the process of trying to generate evidence to prove their case. The lack of evidence, money as well as the tremendous resources of the defendants should all have been considerations that would have steered them from a trial. Most important of all, the attorney should have been focused on the goal of the Plaintiff's in determining whether or not to litigate, which in the movie was completely overlooked. They did not want punitive damages as a result of their losses. What they wanted was for the responsible party to take ownership of their actions and apologize to them. This was clearly stated to Jan Schlictmann in his initial meeting with them.

Furthermore, they restated their interest at the time that the attorney's informed the families that they would each receive $375,000 as part of the settlement from W.R. Grace. Strategy in the Adversary System. One of the strategies employed by lawyers in a trial to achieve a favorable verdict is to persuade the trier of facts that the facts presented by the other side are untrue, improvable or not credible. In the movie, both defense attorneys's attacked the credibility of the plaintiff's attorney, Jan Schlictmann. The first attack on Schlichmann's credibility was when a motion to dismiss the case was heard. Mr. Cheeseman, The attorney representing W.R. Grace tells the Judge that Schlichtman "prepared he complaint so inexpertly".

Also, during the trial, Mr. Facher made objections repeatedly while Schlictmann was questioning witnesses. In the judges chamber, Schlichtman complains, "18 yesterday and 20 times today and they are not even his witnesses!" The Discovery Process- As discussed in class, the purpose of the discovery process is to eliminate the mystery of the case by bringing forth the facts. Depositions are one avenue of discovery. During a deposition, attorneys representing both sides of the case have the opportunity to orally interview potential witnesses. Those being deposed are under oath. Their statements are sworn and documented by a court reporter to serve as a matter of court record.

During the initials depositions several of the tannery employees and the owner lied about the drums that contained the toxic waste. Later the employees corrected their statements, after one of their co-workers acknowledged the barrel's existence. Nevertheless, the owner of the tannery, Mr. Riley, lied about his involvement with TCE while being deposed and again on the stand in the first trial. Riley was later found guilty of purger y.

Our textbook indicates one of the purposes of discovery is to encourage settlement of the lawsuit by bringing forth the facts. This situation was depicted in the movie. Following the emotional deposition of the father who had described losing his son on the way to the hospital, we see a picture of a hangman that Mr. Facher had doodled on his legal notepad. In the next scene of the film Facher is at the tannery where he offers to cover all expenses for Schlictmann as a means of settling the case.

After Jan turns him down, he responds "Do you really think your going to put the family's on the stand? Do you really think I would let that happen? Settlement. Most of the time a cost benefit approach is employed to reach a settlement. Things that are roadblocks to settlement include: where the case is centered on the law rather than fact; there are long term implications for potential plaintiffs if a legal precedent is not set; One party will not compromise; There is not much to be lost in losing, but everything to be gained with a win.

There were several attempts to settle the case in the movie but Schlichmann's ego got in the way, so a trial was inevitable. Unfortunately, the film never showed Schlictmann discussing any of these offers with his clients. In the midst of the 1st offer, noted above, Schlictmann was too hungry for the win". W. R Grace initiated the second offer. Schlictmann asked for $25 million then went up to $320 million. Again, Schlictmann demonstrated his refusal to compromise. This was further evidenced in the film by the surprise on the faces of his partners, who heard his verbal requests climb out of reality.

Schlictmann responded to the 3rd offer that was made by the Beatrice attorney by tearing up his $20 bill, which symbolized $20,000,000. Schlictmann tore up the bill. The final offer of 8 million was accepted, but only after pleading from his near bankrupt partners.