[Cementjungle]

My favorite was when I was foreman on a civil trial at the Federal courthouse in Philadelphia.

A widow's suit against an insurance company had been winding its way through the appeal courts for about 10 years. The insurance company refused to pay the $50K life insurance policy after her husband's fatal car crash. His accident was a week after he bought the policy, which triggered a review by the insurance company. On the application where it had asked if he had been hospitalized in the past 10 years, he failed to mention his routine colonoscopy 9 years and 11 months prior.

Throughout the 3 day trial, the judge intently read a book... but never missed a beat. He would respond quickly whenever needed, but rarely looked up from the book. At one point the defendant's attorney asked the coroner "What condition was Mr. XXXX in when you first saw him?"

The judge, without looking up from his novel, snapped "You know darned well what condition he was in, this is the coroner for God's sake... he was dead. Ask something that makes sense!"

Needless to say, we found for the widow. After legal fees, interest, etc. we wound up awarding her around $250K. Poor woman... the look on her face after reading that award was priceless... she was so relieved after all those years.

[notdownwidems]

I heard a similar story where the lawyer kept asking the witness (an M.D.) along the lines of ‘are you sure he’s dead?’ type questions...finally the doc said ‘well, it’s possible he’s still alive and practicing law somewhere’!

[gitmo]

I was in a jury pool and they were interviewing potential jurors for a trial. They called juror # 14 and the prosecutor immediately jumped up and asked to approach the bench. He and the defense attorney went and talked to the judge.

The judge, apparently displeased, told the attractive lady juror she was dismissed.

After she left the court room he asked, "Are any other jurors in this room sleeping with either of these two lawyers?"