NJ Injury Lawyer Life: Dodging the Defense's Bait and Funny Courtroom Stories

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Welcome to Jersey Justice, a

civil law podcast that shares

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practical tips and stories about

personal and workplace injuries.

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Join two of the brightest New Jersey

injury attorneys, Gerald Clark and Mark

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Morris of Clark Law Firm, as they take

you behind the scenes of justice and civil

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law, but first, a quick disclaimer, the

information shared on this podcast is

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for general information purposes only.

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Nothing on this site should be

taken as legal advice for any

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individual case or situation.

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This information is not intended

to create and does not constitute

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an attorney client relationship.

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All right, everyone, welcome back to

another episode of Jersey Justice.

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And today we have a special treat for you.

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We're going to be talking about

some funny moments inside and

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outside of the courtroom and what

it's really like to practice law

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in New Jersey behind the scenes.

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And I'm here with Mark and Jerry, and they

both got some stories, although they're

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probably We'll be funny in different ways.

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And maybe they both have a different sense

of humor, but we'll let you guys decide.

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So who wants to start this off?

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As far as funny stories.

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So what we do when we do personal injury

and we, you know, represent people,

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we're dealing with life scenarios

and all facets of life, interpersonal

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relationships, sporting events, family

gatherings, going to concerts, everything.

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So we deal with all life

events, people at work.

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So generally.

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When someone comes to us, I can't think

of any case where what happened is funny.

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And when we go to trial and we're in

front of a jury and we're presenting a

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case, there's like nothing funny about it.

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What, what happens, there's a lot

of different tactics that defense

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attorneys who are hired by the

insurance companies and are in court.

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being paid by the insurance

company to defend the case.

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There's a lot of different tactics

that they'll use to try to win.

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One of the tactics is they'll try

to make it like it's a big joke.

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They'll, they'll try to laugh with you.

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They'll try to like joke about things

in court and they will especially

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try to do it in front of the jury.

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And a young lawyer.

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Or an inexperienced trial lawyer

may fall into that trap and act

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like, Hey, I'm a nice guy and

we're laughing and this is all fun.

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And super big mistake.

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If you're a plaintiff's lawyer,

never take the bait when the defense

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lawyer tries to get you to laugh or

joke or make it light or act like

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this is all a big joke, because.

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As I said, we've never had a case where

this was ever a joke or it was ever

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funny to the person it happened to.

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We handle serious injury cases.

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We get many, many inquiries about

people that want us to represent them,

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but we only take a select few cases.

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And trust me, they're never

funny what happens to people.

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You know, so the other thing, and you

know, the opposite of funny, the other

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tactic a defense lawyer will often use at

trial, is to turn it into a spite match.

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So if the jury thinks this is just a

spite match between two lawyers, pretty

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much the plaintiff will lose the case.

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So that's the other thing is while

we're not going to be funny and we're

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not going to be joking or laughing with

the defense lawyer, especially not in

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front of a jury, because there's really

nothing funny about it when someone's

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life has been turned upside down.

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And the other hand, though, we're not

going to turn it into a spite match.

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We're going to stay professional,

because if, again, if the jury thinks

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it's just a spite match between two

lawyers, the plaintiff's going to lose.

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The jury's just going to throw

their hands up and be done

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with it and leave it as it is.

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So defense lawyers will often try

to bait the lawyer into a spite

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match, to make it like a big

fight, which turns everyone off.

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So all that being said, there are

absolutely many, many funny moments in

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this business and representing people.

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And the funniest things I can think

of is, so what happens is, we, we

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take cases and, so if you're a defense

lawyer and the insurance company says,

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here's a case, or the boss puts a case

on your, here's a new case, defend it.

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They have to do whatever they

have to do to defend the case.

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No matter how wrong the defense is, No

matter how bad it was, what happened,

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no matter how badly injured the

person was, they have to defend it.

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So in defending cases, the defense

lawyers will often come up with

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the most ridiculous scenarios.

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Like they talk about frivolous

litigation, ah, frivolous plaintiff suits.

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I've pretty much never seen a

frivolous plaintiff's case, but I have

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seen frivolous defenses in the vast

majority of the cases that we have.

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The defenses are frivolous.

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They get so frivolous, they get

to the point of being funny.

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And I remember Mark and I tried a case.

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Some time ago, and there was just so many

funny moments in it, like just ridiculous

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things that happen, and it's hard to

pinpoint, but I remember the one defense

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lawyer would he, we still joke about it.

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Like, I just tried a case.

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I was in Jersey City for three weeks

trying a case, and I don't think the

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defense lawyer thought it was going to go

forward because it was Labor Day weekend.

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It was the Tuesday after Labor Day

weekend, and the county that we were in

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is backlogged, and they don't have enough

judges, so I think the defense probably

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didn't think it was actually going to go,

but I had a strong feeling that it was

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actually going to go, so we prepared all

Labor Day weekend and before Labor Day,

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and we were there, we were ready, and

very serious case, very sad what happened

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to our client, but it seemed like the

defense was always three days behind us.

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Like, they were always

like, they never caught up.

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Like, we were so prepared, we were

moving, we had our witnesses on

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and off before they could even

know, like, who's on or to prepare.

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They were always behind.

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And that was kind of funny

how they were always behind.

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And so you get these

situations in these cases.

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I remember Mark and I tried this

case and the defense lawyer would

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always be like, So we'd be super

prepared, we would present stuff.

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And we would have a proper objection,

we would have a proper exhibit,

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properly moving forward and

entering our things and doing stuff.

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And that defense lawyer was also

kind of behind the eight ball.

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And he would often just go like, Judge!

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Judge!

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Like every time, every time we would

present something, or have a proper

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objection, or cross examine their

witness with a hot document, like

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we'd hit, like in that case that Mark

and I tried together, we literally

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went through, Tens of thousands of

pages of documents and and pull that.

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So we were pulling and we got all the

good documents and the defense lawyer

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didn't even know we had these documents.

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They provided them to us, but

they just dumped him on us and

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didn't think we'd actually go

through and pull out the good ones.

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So we would market exhibit like their

their witness would say something.

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We would then pull out an exhibit and

cross examine, which would directly

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contradict what would happen, directly

contradict their testimony, and the

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defense lawyer would be like, Judge!

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Judge!

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You can't let this happen!

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And to this day, Mark

and I laugh about that.

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And he would almost always lose

when he would be like, Judge!

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Objection!

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Don't let this happen!

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Like, I'm caught off guard here!

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Yeah, you're caught off guard because

you Dumped thousands of pages on us.

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Didn't think we'd put the work

in to actually review them and

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pull out the ones that mattered.

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And by the way, you're about

two days behind us in this case.

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So that's kind of funny.

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And there's a lot of funny

things that come up primarily

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dealing with that sort of thing.

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So that's the best I can do

for you on like a funny story.

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Well, that was funny because I did

want to stories that had to do with the

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judge and that, that kind of, you know.

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Checkbox, but it is funny that that

person that lawyer sounds like he's

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like a little kid or something.

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He's like, oh my god I'm gonna run to

the teacher and complain, you know Oh in

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this case, I just tried the lawyer it was

the same thing like he would run to the

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judge like and I remember he called me

like to try to settle the Case and I'm

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like, I told him he has to apologize.

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He has to send a letter for two of

apology because I asked him when he was

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cross examining our witness, I said, in

court, in front of the jury, I'm like,

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can you please step away from our client?

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Stop pounding over him.

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Like, he was over the witness,

like, doing this, and like,

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all, and you didn't need to be.

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And I said, Judge, could you

please have the lawyer step in?

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And he wouldn't do it,

and he kept walking by.

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So then he called me that weekend,

trying, like, talking settlement,

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which was just a big distraction.

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And I said, We will not, you can, I will

not discuss settlement with you until

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you send a letter to me apologizing

for not stepping away from my client

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and, and he's like flipping out and he

would always run to the judge and, and

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the conversation got a little heated.

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I'm like, yeah.

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Go run to the judge like you're like,

go cry to the judge again, like a

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baby and try, but, but, but like I

said, how's that been working for you?

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Because it wasn't working too well.

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But yeah, there's like a lot of

funny, funny situations and stuff.

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Reminds me of someone I know.

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And I used to say something about

this person behind their back.

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And I was like, you know,

this person sounds like.

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A toddler with a diaper on and it's

like reminds me of that same scenario

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of the behavior the mannerisms of that

not having that emotional intelligence

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to really react the right way, but

just kind of like, oh, I'm going

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to go cry to the teacher, but now

I'm going to go credit the judge.

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I'm going to go cry to my mom.

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I'm going to cry to everyone to

get attention and it backfired.

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So I think that's a great story.

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Thank you.

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The whole time you started talking

about it before you got to like the

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punchline, I just, in my head had

judge, because that, that was it.

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He'd be like, judge, we've

never seen this document before.

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And it's like, it's got your

bait stamp on the bottom.

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You produced it.

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It was, I think, but that back to like

the beginning, what Jerry was talking

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about though, he's absolutely right.

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Like it's really serious stuff, what

we do, but sometimes it's like, it's

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not like the person just got hurt.

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And then, you know, they were just

in the hospital and they just got

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this surgery and like, you know, a

couple days later we're at trial and

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they're still all like somber about it.

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Like, this stuff plays out over years.

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Like, I, Jerry, I think even the

case you were talking about that

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you were just on trial for it, like.

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I think it happened back in 2017,

especially now with like COVID these

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things take like a long, long time.

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And like, I, I settled a case this

morning where I was in court with

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my client and the thing happened

back in like: 2019

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in there and the defense attorneys

on the other side of the courtroom

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were there for like a couple hours.

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Cause we're going back

and forth with the judge.

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And my client's like, Oh,

he's like, you know, do you

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ever end up going on vacation?

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This spot, he's like, check this.

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And he's like showing me pictures

on his phone of places he's been.

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And he's like being all like night,

like jovial about he's all excited and

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the defense is in there and I, I turned

away like that after a while and I like

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pulled him outside when the defense left.

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I was like, look, I was like, don't

be like happy, like joking around.

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It's the same thing.

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Like the extent Jerry's talking

about, like a defense tries to

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like beat you into, you know,

to make it all seem like a joke.

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Like.

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Nobody doubts how injured your client

is like, well, that's not true.

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Actually.

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Everybody doubts how injured your client

is, but like the reality is the guy

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I'm sitting next to got really hurt.

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He went through a ton

of medical treatment.

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This has been like a.

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Catastrophic process for him, but like

he's a human being if he lived every

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minute of his life like reflecting on

that He'd just be a miserable miserable

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person but so i'm like But just don't

project out there that this is all like,

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oh like whatever like hey, look at these

photos It's like this is so serious

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Whether you like realize it or not,

everything you're doing in this courtroom

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is like getting analyzed by them.

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Like they could seem like the

nicest person, but you're always

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kind of under the microscope.

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And I don't know if I've told this

story already, but I remember I had

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a federal case, which what we do is

like, seriously, I follow the rules.

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But when you go to federal

court, it's like ratcheted up

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to, you know, the nth degree.

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I had a.

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A federal case and it was, it just

happened to be like my client got

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thrown out of a bar and he broke his

wrist and he moved to Pennsylvania.

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So for whatever reason, the defendants

removed the case to federal court, like

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we filed in New Jersey and then they

removed it to New Jersey federal court.

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And so we conference the case

with the magistrate to try and

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get the, get the thing settled.

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And beforehand I talked to

my client, I was like, look.

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Whatever happens like i'm gonna come

whatever number I tell you like don't

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react to it And all that and it wasn't

like a horrible injury or anything I

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think the offer was like forty thousand

dollars and like I wanted to get like

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60 or 70 And I came out and I was like,

all right, I told him, I was like, poker

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face, no reaction, just poker face.

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I came out and I was like, all right,

so their initial offer is 40, 000.

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He goes, Oh my God, 40, 000.

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I had no idea my case was worth that much.

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I thought I'd get like five grand.

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He's like in this federal courthouse.

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Shut up.

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Like, and I'd prepped him on

it, but the guy was so pumped.

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Thankfully the defense attorney

like wasn't around, but like.

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People are always coming in and out.

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So if they see him like, Oh my gosh,

40, 000, like you better believe they're

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never going to offer like a penny more

than that, but then he's like, I gotta

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go call my wife, this is unbelievable.

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And you know, we, we throw around,

it's a kind of wild business.

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Like we throw around these numbers, like

40, 000 is a significant amount of money.

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But you know, when we deal in a

world where we're dealing with cases,

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they're like hundreds of thousands

of dollars, like millions of dollars.

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Do you lose sight of that?

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But that's like, that's

a someone's salary.

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So it's a big deal.

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But his reaction just

absolutely like cracked me up.

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And I wasn't even thinking of going for

funny stories, but yeah, that was funny.

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That one is definitely funny.

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Also.

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I want to know if either of you

have ever been yelled at by a judge.

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Jerry never, Jerry has never

been yelled at by a judge.

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Are you kidding?

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Are you serious?

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Well, let's, let's, let's

do that one another day.

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Yell being yelled at by the judge.

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Well, you have one story,

Mark, about the pen.

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Tell us that one.

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Then we'll wrap it up.

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It's the same thing as Jerry.

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Like look, judges are people too.

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Like the one I did this morning, we're

cutting into the judge's lunch break.

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He had like his jacket on, was

like half out the door ready to go.

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He went like above and beyond

taking the time to do it.

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But like judges are people too.

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And I had this case years ago down,

it was like the oldest operating

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courthouse in the United States and

like very rural part of the state.

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And this judge was on recall.

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I'm not even sure if

he's still like with us.

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He was old and he had like a sinus

infection or something going on.

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So I'm trying this case and the

whole time he's like, Sorry,

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proceed, proceed, proceed.

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And when the jury would leave, I

remember I was working on, on something.

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The jury wasn't around and

I had a pen behind my ear.

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Like that.

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And he's like, Mr.

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Mr.

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Morris, get that pen out

from behind your ear.

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I don't know where you think you are.

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And I was like, I apologize, judge.

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I'm used to walking around the office, but

then he's like, you're not in your office.

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You're in my, you're in my courtroom.

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And it was like all day he was like that.

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It was, it was really distracting.

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It was really funny.

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But like, by the end I did like

my closing and he's like, Mr.

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Morris, because in New Jersey,

you can't say a number.

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Like I can't say like, ladies and

gentlemen, my clients really hurt.

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Give her 5 million.

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I can't tell them a number, but we can

do this like time unit analysis thing,

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where it's, you basically give like

a formula to come up with a number.

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And I did that in my closing.

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: 00:15:13

And this judge who had been like,

kind of riding me the whole time.

302

: 00:15:16

He's like, Mr.

303

: 00:15:17

Morris, like approach

the bench, like go off.

304

: 00:15:19

He's like, that was the finest

presentation of the time unit analysis

305

: 00:15:24

I've ever heard in my time on this bench.

306

: 00:15:26

And they probably

sneezed or like whatever.

307

: 00:15:29

And I was like, I was a

young lawyer at the time.

308

: 00:15:30

I was like, all right,

like all pumped about it.

309

: 00:15:32

It's so serious.

310

: 00:15:33

But it's like such high stakes

stuff, but like there's always

311

: 00:15:37

always moments like that.

312

: 00:15:38

I think usually you're just too focused

on like Well, you have to do like,

313

: 00:15:42

I had a judge one time we were doing

like a, a debate and they were playing

314

: 00:15:45

the video of like the doctor, the

things pre recorded and the judge is

315

: 00:15:49

like, doctor, doctor, can you hear me?

316

: 00:15:51

Can you, all right.

317

: 00:15:52

Yeah.

318

: 00:15:53

And like, it's a prerecorded thing,

but the jury doesn't know that.

319

: 00:15:55

And they're like, they're

like trying to figure it out.

320

: 00:15:58

But so judges are people to like.

321

: 00:16:02

Yeah, it's these organic moments

that just, you know, it happens

322

: 00:16:05

organically when it's funny.

323

: 00:16:07

It's not like cases

themselves are not funny.

324

: 00:16:09

It's a serious thing, of

course, but it just organically

325

: 00:16:11

things happen in the courtroom.

326

: 00:16:13

Things happen with the defense attorneys

that just, it ends up being funny.

327

: 00:16:17

So thank you for sharing that.

328

: 00:16:19

We're going to wrap this one up.

329

: 00:16:20

We'll see you guys next time.

330

: 00:16:23

And there you have it, folks.

331

: 00:16:25

Another episode of Jersey Justice Podcast.

332

: 00:16:28

If you're loving what you're hearing,

it's time to hit that subscribe button

333

: 00:16:31

on Apple, YouTube, and Spotify podcasts.

334

: 00:16:34

And don't forget to

leave us a review online.

335

: 00:16:37

Share this podcast with your

friends and become their legal hero.

336

: 00:16:41

Dive into more episodes

at Jersey justice podcast.

337

: 00:16:44

com are Clark law and j.

338

: 00:16:48

com.

339

: 00:16:49

And check out our show

notes for more information.

340

: 00:16:51

If you're navigating legal issues and

need a guiding light, or just a phone

341

: 00:16:55

call away, call us at 1 877 841 8855.

342

: 00:17:01

Again, 1 877 841 8855.

343

: 00:17:05

Until next time, Jersey justice

warriors stay empowered and informed.

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