So this is it. The big day. Expert testimony this morning, closing arguments this afternoon. Jury deliberations start next week, but I didn’t have to be there for them. The case is over with today. What a great feeling.
Hopefully it’s not a bad omen, but I spilled yogurt all over my tie while riding the train into town. The spill looked horrible. At $30, my tie was one expensive bib.
On the way to the courthouse, I found a men’s clothing shop. They had a wall of ties and I went about finding a tie that matched my jacket, pants and shirt. After about ten minutes, I came up with one that was “close enough.” I turned it over and nearly choked when I saw that it cost $89. I went to put it back and the salesman helping me said ” Tell you what, I will give you 35% off the price if you come back and see me in the future.”
There goes the little voice inside my head again … Oh yeah. I’ll stop back and buy my Jockey shorts here – my attorneys already owe me three pair of them. What do they cost – like $49.95 per pair?
So I paid $65 for a tie.
This funky looking piece of silk will henceforth be known as my “lucky tie.”
When I got to the courthouse, I discovered that they were not going to call the last expert witness. Everything that needed to be said regarding the case and the standards required had already come out through the testimony of other experts. They determined that this expert’s testimony would have been “cumulative,” so everyone agreed not to have him testify. It probably saved the Grinch another five grand in expert fees, too.
Everyone was upbeat. Vinny and the hospital attorney brought in easels so that they could diagram their complex arguments for the jury. Vinny told me how he was going to devote one page to the experts. He planned to draw a line down the middle and then list all of the experts who had the same opinion. Two of the plaintiff’s experts and our two experts on one side of the line with the plaintiff’s surgeon all by himself on the other side of the line. I don’t think that the jury believed the plaintiff’s surgeon anyway. Speaking about the jury, I didn’t hear them laughing and joking in the jury room. Maybe they were somewhere else.
I decided to treat the stuff that happened with Louise up to this point as water under the bridge. If she started up with me again, I would reconsider, but since this was the last day we would be in court, I doubted that there would be a problem.
Then Vinny told me that Louise was going to be doing closing arguments. Gulp. Instant butterflies in my stomach.
Then Louise walked into court looking disheveled. Her jacket was unbuttoned and part of her blouse had come untucked. The belt to her overcoat missed the loop on her left side. The right side of the belt was tucked into her pocket and the left side of the belt was hanging off of the loop in back of her, so it swung back and forth like a tail when she walked. She put her notepads on the table. At the top of one was written “WhiteCoat Closing.” There were lines, different colored inks, and all kinds of doodles scribbled out all over the pad. Those butterflies in my stomach were beginning to feel more like bats.
Vinny was very methodical and comforting. Louise worried me because she could be scatterbrained at times.
I smirked at the irony. It was almost like me being in the hospital and debating whether I should allow the resident to perform an operation or I should demand on the attending physician’s services. Ironic because that was one of the ancillary issues in this trial — whether or not a resident is qualified to take care of critically ill patients. Was Louise qualified to argue a complex closing argument? I just continued to have faith and trust them. We made it this far.
The court clerk opened the door to the back and poked her head into the courtroom. She saw Vinny and said that the judge wanted to talk to him. He told her that not all of the attorneys were present. Apparently attorneys can only talk to the judge if all sides are represented. The court clerk said that was okay because he just wanted to talk to any one of the attorneys. Vinny walked back into the chambers.
He came out about three minutes later and looked very upset.
My heart sank.
I had flashbacks to how patients must gauge my expressions when they are in the hospital emergency department. By Vinny’s look, I knew that something was wrong. He walked over and cursed under his breath. It seemed like an eternity until he spoke again.
I had another flashback to one time when a teenage girl had been killed by a drunk driver and was brought to my emergency department. Her parents came into the hospital and I did not quite know how to break the news to them. I started to mumble a little bit and then the father grabbed me by the shirt with both hands and said “Speak, man, SPEAK!” He already knew what I was going to say. He just needed to hear the words.
He started out “Well….”
I thought to myself “Can we drag this out any longer? Is it THAT bad?”
“The judge called in sick today. We’re going to have to postpone closing arguments until next week.”
It was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.
“THAT’S all? Heck, for a second I thought that one of our experts was going to be disqualified or something.”
Then he added “I am going to go down to see if we can argue this case without the judge.”
Shortly thereafter, the Grinch walked into the room. He didn’t bring anything special for closing arguments – just his briefcase.
The court clerk motioned him towards the back. He went back into the judge’s chambers and I heard him say “If he dismissed the jury, then I’m leaving.” He came through the door from the judge’s chambers, grabbed his briefcase, and walked out of the courtroom. Didn’t give it a second thought.
I waited around for Vinny to return. He walked through the outside door with a disgusted look on his face about 10 minutes later.
“Well … nothing we can do now.”
Frustrating.
It was a long train ride home that day. To make matters worse, my notebook computer crackled when I turned it on and suddenly stopped working.
I just remembered – I thought the trial would be over with today. I scheduled a 24 hour shift from Sunday morning to Monday morning. I wouldn’t be able to make it to court until the afternoon. Have to see if I can switch the shift.
So much for the “lucky tie.”
Maybe Louise could use it as a belt for her overcoat.
Dammit. You’re killin’ me. Justice delayed is justice denied!
Talk about a stress test.
In your own words: “Can we drag this out any longer?” Actually, keep dragging it out. I have a feeling that there’s going to be a “blog reading void” once your trial story is fully told.
yeah, maybe once it is over WC can do a prequel, and then some cartoon spin-offs, and different authors can write about the characters at a future date – it’ll be a whole franchise. WC will have final say in all plot lines of course.
It’ll be just like Star Wars.
I know. Next week my readership will drop by 90%.
Was fun while it lasted, though.
Couple of things in this episode puzzled me. Was the last expert a witness for the plaintiff or for the defense? If he was a defense expert, how did deciding not to call him save the Grinch $5000? And why was Vinnie describing the list he was going to use in closing, if he had already assigned the closing to Louise?
This happened several years ago and I’m just going off the notes I took, so I don’t recall who the expert was testifying on behalf of.
Good point about Vinny’s comments. He may have told me that it was “their” plan – I just remember being shocked when I heard that Louise was going to be doing closings.
Aaaaarrrrgggghhh! Nail-biting!
I would like to know how chesty Louise was, as well as her age. I only want to know because it makes a difference to trial tactics.
The doctor defendant soon learns how it feels to be an HMO patient receiving minimalist, rushed care. You cannot even offer cash to the insurance lawyer to do more for you. He has agreed to take only the pittance he is paid by the insurance company. So you will never get effective preliminary motions to dismiss and end the case. The insurance lawyer needs a trial to just break even. He needs to have starter lawyers, paid $80K a year, to do most of the work to break even. Was Louise a starter lawyer? If she was, you also now know how the indigent feel getting care for horrific medical conditions from med students and residents in public hospitals.
Don’t think Louise was a “starter” lawyer, but she wasn’t a partner, either.
She was blonde, in her late 30’s, and attractive, but not a “knockout”.
Hey, if/when Obama’s healthcare bill passes, it’s only a matter of time until EVERYONE gets their care from med students (the few there will be), public hospital residents, and put-upon attendings who couldn’t figure out a way to transform their careers into one that will continue to earn a good/great living! Oh, except for the wealthy who will always be able to enhance their medical care….lucky wealthy people!
I agree, my comment just above is a little snarky. I really hope it doesn’t turn out quite so badly.
“The Trial of a WhiteCoat” is great reading. You should bundle it all together, expand it, and publish it. You could be the John Grisham of the medical set.
I wish
I hadn’t thought of this in quite awhile, but your yogurt-spill-as-omen comment recalled it to mind –
One summer morning few years ago, we finished with the last witness in a malpractice trial,then adjourned early for lunch, with closings and jury deliberations scheduled for the afternoon. The defendant doctor, insurance adjustor and I ordered lunch at a sidewalk cafe a block from the courthouse. Halfway through the meal, a seagull swooped down and defecated on the doctor’s shoulder, depositing the largest volume I have ever seen one bird produce. We all sat transfixed with horror for a few seconds, then the doctor hurried to the washroom to effect what repairs he could. The adjustor turned to me and said shakily, “I hope that wasn’t the Universe giving its opinion of our defense.”
Oh no … is your judge going to end up in your ED on your next shift? Leading to a mistrial and a do-over?
That’s what I’d have been paranoid about, if it was me.
Haha, you have a lucky tie? When I went to interview at a med school (the one I eventually got accepted into and attended), I realized I had forgotten to bring black socks. I desperately looked around that morning for a clothing store; all I could find was a Sak’s. The cheapest pair of socks they had was $15. Given all my other black socks cost about $3 a piece, those are now my lucky socks…
UGH!
I am simultaneously upset at the teaser and grateful that this story has not yet drawn to its inevitable conclusion.
So I will amuse myself in the meantime.
(spoiler alert!)
Dr. WhiteCoat flashes back to the spacing out episodes by the judge and swiftly diagnoses the judge with partial complex seizures caused by an arterial venous malformation. Whitecoat then rushes out the door to stop the judge from calling in sick since he’s about to die from a subarachnoid hemorrhage. With quick MacGyver-like improvisation, Whitecoat crafts a vascular cath out of rubber tubing, a chewed up bic pen and a paper clip, successfully coiling the AVM before it bursts. The jury applauds this heroic effort and he is invited to be a guest star on House and Royal Pains as a result.
he could use Louise’s chewed up bic pen.
WC,
this is probably not the post to do it, but I was hoping you or someone else could comment on these 24 hour shifts you talk about. Docs talk about this a lot. It seems CRAZY.
to work 24 hours you’d have to be awake at least 26, due to waking up before work and then driving home.
I’m really not sure if I have EVER done that my entire life. Is this safe? Don’t you start doing crazy stuff – like falling asleep while listening to someone’s HR, or when waiting for a piece of software to finish a task (like printing a document)?
I can’t believe anyone can think critically with this little sleep.
Given that train personnel aren’t allowed to work such hours and even the time spent traveling to the work site counts I am amazed that doctors are even allowed to work such shifts. You guys need a better union.
maybe patients need better education – maybe they should refuse to see docs that haven’t slept in 24 hours. then again, this always seems to be coming from emergency docs – it isn’t like you care during an emergency – you just want the problem fixed pronto.