A Reason to Believe

After slightly more than three weeks, beginning on July 18 when we were assigned out to Judge Rivas, the trial that detonated a hand grenade in the middle of my summer ended on Wednesday.  It was a hard-fought, well-tried case that ended in our clients’ favor.  When it was over, truthfully, I was more relieved than I was elated.  

As someone whose IT skills are, well, laughable I was fortunate that during the protracted period of time that New Jersey courts were trying cases exclusively via Zoom I never had to try one.  Cases are to be tried in the courtroom, live and in person.  Period.   Call me a dinosaur if you wish but I offer no apology.  

It was a pleasure to spend the past several weeks in the company of excellent attorneys, both on my side of the courtroom and on the plaintiffs’ side.  The plaintiffs’ attorney was a classmate of mine at Seton Hall Law School three-plus decades ago.  He is now as he was then, a credit to our profession in terms of his legal skills and, moreover, in terms of his humanity.  We need more attorneys like John.  Hell, we need more people like John.  

It had been close to five years since I had last tried a case and it felt good to get back into the courtroom and back at it.  I am - at best - a decidedly mediocre human being.  The ability to try a case just might be the thing I do best.  Admittedly the list of things I do well is a very, very short one.  

Rhetorical question:  Can a list contain only one item?  Asking for…

…never mind.  

-AK