As I have mentioned in previous stories, I am scheduled to head off to New York City on Sunday for a trial in which I will be giving expert testimony on a case that started in the middle of 2022 and which I have put about 330 hours of time on since then. This is the case that I was contacted about in mid July and told to start preparing for trial due to start on September 8. Since that call in July and at the request of the client I have put in a rather intensive 106 hours of study, refreshing myself as to all the pertinent aspects of the case, and all the evidence that underlies my opinions. I have literally skimmed and reviewed over 3000 pages of deposition transcripts and worked to memorize about 550 pages of detailed financial evidence so that I could be a compelling and competent expert when I had my one hour on the stand of direct questioning and approximately one hour of cross examination. I have 25 pages of notes with every detail that I was planning on studying between now and being called to the stand. My entire month of September was spoken for. My bags are packed for an extended New York City stay and I even had my suits cut down at the taylor so that they fit properly. In other words, I am as ready as one could be to take this case to the finish line. In fact I was expecting that September would be spent in approximately 150 hours worth of further work doing just that.
I’m sure you’ve just figured out what I’m about to say. About an hour ago I got an email from the lawyers telling me that the case had just settled. That means that I will not be going to New York and that all work on this case is now meaningless and done. I can literally tear up my 25 pages of notes and delete all the depositions and evidence documents from my files. My iPad isn’t gonna know what hit it. I’ve canceled my hotel room for the three weeks, canceled my Uber to the airport on Sunday and canceled my airline travel… although those charges can only go into my travel bank so I guess I should call that my bonus for a job well done.
As I have texted, emailed and called around to tell people that I will not indeed be going to New York in a few days after all, one question gets asked over and over and that is is this good news or bad news. Even though I am in the expert witness business, I do believe that our modern society in the United States is far too litigious for its own good, so I have a very hard time ever suggesting that settling a dispute isn’t a better outcome for the world at large than carrying through the fight in the court system. I think it’s better for both litigating parties. I think it’s better for the United States court system, which is clearly over-taxed as it is. And while I’m sure I will get some debate about the issue from the litigation bar. I actually believe that many litigators consider settling cases to be a better outcome than taking them through trial, where almost anything can happen, especially with a jury. I recently had an arbitration which shocked me in terms of having an outcome with a ruling that was less in our favor than I expected (by a lot). At the same time, I had an arbitration recently, where our side got damage payments far exceeding the amount of the claims. Needless to say the litigants I represented in the first case were not happy and yet the litigants I represented in the second case were beyond happy. I won’t opine on who I think should’ve won either case or how much they should’ve been paid, but I will say that those two examples are perfect highlights as to why I say that litigators understand that even in more controlled situations like arbitrations, the outcomes have a unpredictable dispersion.
I had budgeted to spend approximately 150 hours on this case in September and now that turns out to be only eight hours. I suppose I could say that that’s money that’s not going into my pocket, but instead I prefer to say that my client is obviously happy that this is behind them and I am happy that I’ll have another month of my life available to me to do what I want rather than what I have to do. I have several other cases that will require some work in the near future, so I do not lack for the opportunity to put more billable hours on the blackboard in 2025, but still, my September dance card is suddenly wide open and that never feels wonderful for a working man.
My bottom line on all of this is that I tell people that this is simply the nature of the business. You shouldn’t be upset when people don’t need your services for a good reason… you should be happy. It should always please you to be able to move on to a new opportunity or a new situation. And mostly for a supposedly retired person like me, it should always be a good thing that I have more free time rather than less. So I will go home today and unpack my suitcase and hang up my better-fitting suits, file my working papers and recharge my iPad after cleaning out my iAnnotate folder of all the documents related to this case. I will tell my expert witness partners to move the dropbox and invoicing folders to inactive status, and I will do what I do with all cases when they are finished, I will do my best to forget about them.
I suspect that I will sleep well tonight and, to be honest, the last week or so I’ve spent some amount of time during the night while I was trying to sleep, thinking about how I would answer certain questions when put to me on the witness stand. So perhaps, instead, I will dream about things I can do with my newfound month. Maybe I’ll visit a friend or take a motorcycle trip. Maybe I’ll go to the beach. And maybe I’ll just stay home and play with Buddy and remind myself all the reasons that I am always happier to be at home and available to do whatever Kim and the universe wants me to do. That, my friends, is the real nature of the biz.