Re: Unbeleiveable story
Guys, here is a qoute from this guy.<br /><br />"My lawyers, I believe, were confident of the case based on the facts and the normally expected outcome and I feel they understimated the plaintiffs attorney."<br /><br />When lawyers get involved there is not a "normally expected outcome".<br /><br />If you ever have to go to court, be prepared as a crook lawyer could make the Pope look bad. Honesty and "doing the right thing" is not important to many lawyers, winning is all that matters.<br /><br />Ken<br /><br />P.s. If you dont want to wade through the threads here is the WOW.<br />***********************************************<br />O.K.<br />Is everyone sitting down?<br />We went to trial . It lasted five days. Much of the time was taken by the two psychologist ($500 per hour) going on about their qualifications, the validity of their tests etc. Mainly their different takes on the fact that the neighbor ranked in the 98% percentile in the "paranoid" category.<br />Their attorney's opening statement slung everything he could think of on the wall hoping some would stick. He even said I would go over near their property in my tractor and accelerate so quickly as to spin the tires, spew gravel and cause the front tires to almost raise off of the ground! This, on a B21 with a front end loader!<br />He said I repeatedly shouted obscenities at him - I don't swear. at all, even when I hit my thumb with a hammer and even though I was raised by (or perhaps BECAUSE I was raised by) a sailor. They spewed out dozens of lies without any shred of proof, but they were things that I had no way of dissproving either i.e. shouting obscenities, pounding on his car as he drove by, rattling the doors to his RV etc etc etc. I could only say that none of this was true because how could I prove I did not do these things unless I had a 24 hour video of my self or proof that I was living outside the country?<br />They had several friends take the stand describing how these nice people are now so depressed. One of them described an incident they attributed to me, where a car came to their driveway, shining the lights into their house for many minutes, although they didn't see the car they were sure it was me has they then saw the car drive around and park near my barn. Well this was a provable lie as first a car parked in their drive would not be aimed at their window, second it would be impossible to see a car drive back and park at my barn as they would have to see thru their hedge, my 6' fence, my house, about 600 feet of woods and thru a 30' high hill! When the neighbor took the stand, this guy, who months before this started was helping me rebuild my barn and continues to take one hundred mile bike rides suddenly appeared old and almost senile. He wore a "hearing assisted headphone" and had to be told MANY times to scoot closer to the microphone so we could all hear his faint voice. I don't think he ever directly answered a yes no question. Always went off on rambling tangents. They said they would call home to the other as they approached so they could be alerted if I did any bad deeds. For some reason my attorneys tell me I could bring character witness to point out I'm a normal guy - coach my daughters softball team, past president of the parents association at school etc etc<br />They produced THOUSANDS of photos - they would drive along the road with camera or video camera raised pointed at me, alert the other ahead of timeupon arriving, had five video surrviellance cameras running 24 hours per day but could not produce even one shot of me doing any of the accusations!!!<br />There was one time when I was about three feet off the road, the neighbor drives by very slowly and edges over near me. I stand my ground and he actually comes so close his rearviw mirror brushes against me. I am upset and lean up to his closed window and shout something like: "are you crazy? you are way off the road!" He flipped out his camera and got a shot of my face from about six inched away. Needless to say this was an unflattering picture and the blew it up to 3 foot wide and showed that to the jury.<br /><br />We discoverd and pointed out to the jury, that in the court right next door, the very same neighbors and lawyer are also suing the title insurance company also for emotional distress for one milllion dollars!<br />Anyway the Jury deliberated about four hours and came back with a verdict in their favor! <br />They decided, for all the lies they accused me of, that I pay them damages of<br />Are you sitting down?<br /><br />$422,000<br />Yes four hundred and twenty two THOUSAND dollars.<br /><br />Then they had to decide the "punitive damages" so as my wife is sitting there cryying almost hysterically, I have to get back up on the stand and lay bare my entire financial state to these 12 strangers on the jury and listen to their attorney describe me as "a monster" who must be punished as if I was charles manson. They jury went out and deliberated about two minutes and came back with a punitive award of $0. As if it would have made any difference because I don't have anywhere near the money for the first part. <br />So we go back next week and ask the judge to reduce it, but as it stands now I lose everythng - all savings (wasn't much), the kids college fund, everything I've worked for, maybe even the house. I am still in a state of shock.<br />Their lawyer, immediately called the local paper, which ran a banner headline the next day about how the poor elderly ccouple was awarded on of the highest amounts for this type of case. They even said that they won the first part of the trial earlier!<br />I suppose most people hear of this large award and figure Wow he must have really done SOMETHING bad. But I honestly did not! They did not have any proof of anything and even the things they were accusing me of should not have warrented this. It's not like I was accused of anything violent. I cannot think of anything I should have done differently.<br />I've learned they have paid their lawyer about 350,000 so far. It burns me up to think he gets off scott free with a ton of money for the wat he acted.<br />But thats all just money, what I havn't got a handle on yet is how am I going to prepare my daughters for a world full of people like that lawyer and "always tell the truth" is not necessarily the best weapon. How much does honesty and integrity count for?
WOW! 
