One (criminal, county) sounded bad at first: Man’s car hits cop’s car on way out of bar parking lot. DUI. Turned out this architect was waiting in a bar for his client when SWAT raided the place (bartenders were dealing drugs) and chased everyone out. He tried to go back in to get his blueprints, but cops got mad and sent him away. His car lightly taps one of the zillion cop cars in the lot. They don’t do a breathalyzer… they don’t even ask him to get out and do a field sobriety test… nothing. Cop says “I knew he was drunk because his hands shook when he took out his ID”. NOT GUILTY…
The other one (Federal, civil appeals court… I was foreman): Man buys $20K life insurance policy and is in a fatal car crash (not his fault) 3 weeks later. The timing of the accident triggers a deep review by insurance company who claims he lied on his application. When asked if he had ever been hospitalized in past 10 years he failed to mention a routine colonoscopy 9 years 11 months prior. We found for the poor widow, and stuck it to the insurance company for about $1 million (10 years of interest plus penalties and legal costs). They should have just paid the measly $20K in the first place.
Some years back, a guy bought temp life insurance for a flight he was taking. Plane crashed, guy dies. His widow was hauled into court, either by the IRS or the insurance company, saying the guy took out the insurance knowing he would die, so either tax would be withheld, or the policy not paid.
The judge threw the case out, saying that if the guy knew the plane would crash, he wouldn't have taken he flight.
[sidebar] I was selected for jury duty in Las Vegas, and the DA came in and addressed us, thanking us for showing up. He said that many cases, where the accused is flat-out guilty, are quickly settled when he sees the jury lining up and just pleads guilty.
There were over 60 of us and I was not selected. They said that those who wanted out to see the clerk. The guy ahead of me said that he had already lost a days pay and couldn't afford another loss. He got off. I told the clerk I lived 90 miles away. He wondered why they called me in the first place and let me off. Waaay past the age cutoff now, so no longer have to worry about that any more.
I was on a jury once where a lady had presented with flu symptoms at a hospital emergency room. Was treated and sent home to check with her regular doc. She died about 3 days later. Family was sueing doc for millions. Instead of settling he was fighting it.
Their whole argument was that he didn’t do an x ray and if he had he would’ve found what was wrong with her. Don’t remember what it was. Almost everyone on the jury had been to a doc with flu symptoms and had never been x rayed so guess you can guess what our verdict for the doc was.