AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Embarrassing moments1/29/2024 I was stunned, but not so stunned that I couldn’t keep massaging her and making sure she stayed calm. I met with my client and baffled her with my best bullshit. I hadn’t fully appreciated that the alimony could amount to millions of dollars over years of payments. I hadn’t yet had a chance to calculate the damage I’d caused by multiplying monthly alimony times the potential lifespan of my client (who would have likely been awarded alimony for life). There weren’t lots of other lawyers around, so only those in the courtroom knew what had happened. I was scrambling so fast trying to recover that I hadn’t fully appreciated the impact of the situation. I was embarrassed, but it wasn’t that bad. I watched the judge, like it was a slow-motion horror movie, dismiss my case. I was required to offer the evidence, and I hadn’t done so. I’d never brought it up when I talked with the other attorney, and he, smartly, hadn’t raised the issue either. The problem on that horrible day was that we hadn’t stipulated on that point. That way, we don’t have to call the opposing party during our case in chief. We usually stipulate that we can bring out that evidence on cross-examination during the opposing party’s case. He blabbered on, and I realized there was nothing routine about what was happening.Ī bit of backstory: In our county, the usual practice is for the attorneys to meet before trial and stipulate to allow the moving party to skip the evidence that’ll come from the opposing party. The opposing counsel rose to make what I thought was a routine motion to dismiss at the close of my evidence. I had offered our financial evidence, but I didn’t offer the evidence related to the other party. She was cross-examined after I finished with her. I had to lay out the finances of the family. That would pretty much do it for my case in chief. I had to do the same for the other party. However, I was required to present evidence of my client’s income, expenses, assets, and debts. I’d made my opening statement, I had offered my client to testify on the numbers, and, if I recall correctly, we had stipulated on fault (so no evidence was required). We had to prove some basic elements (fault, dependency, and the other spouse’s ability to support my client). It was my first trial after I’d returned from my heart attack. It’s all fuzzy and covered in years of emotion, denial, and the retelling of the events. I have no idea whether every detail of this is exactly what happened. It’s possible that the coping mechanisms in my brain have rewritten the story I tell myself. I’ll tell you what happened as best as I can recall. I told the client things would get fixed-somehow. I called from the car, having just left the courthouse. Take heart knowing that awkward moments have existed since the dawn of time, and occasionally running into a tree or putting our feet in our mouth only connects us and makes us human.The malpractice carrier answered on the first ring. Our media age offers a plethora of opportunities for personal embarrassment, but hey – at least we can watch everyone else’s awkward moments on YouTube. Who else has liked a crush’s Instagram post from three years ago? We can’t be the only ones who have ever sent a screenshot of a message… right back to the person we were texting. Raise your hand if you’ve ever swiped right on a coworker by mistake and had to avoid their desk on your way to the kitchen. We have to say, the awkward moments that take the cake are those brought on by the digital age of communication – we mean texting, dating apps, and social media. More famous awkward moments from the 21st century include Mike Tyson falling off a hoverboard and when Ariana Grande got caught on camera licking a doughnut at a bakery before putting it back (ew!). Who hasn’t heard of Janet Jackson’s famous “Nipplegate” situation at the Superbowl? Who doesn’t remember when Ashlee Simpson got caught lip-synching at a concert?Īwkward moments in the YouTube age have a whole new character, as they can be watched over and over again. With the advent of radio, TV, movies, and more technology that connects us, the number of awkward moments publicized and made infamous expanded exponentially. Some of the earliest awkward moments we could find include Isaac Newton incorrectly predicting the end of the world several times, a football team in the 1929 Rose Bowl almost running a touchdown to the wrong side of the field, and President Roosevelt accidentally running into Churchill coming out of the bath, naked! Turns out, humans have been awkward since the dawn of time. Just in case you’re working through your own social faux pas, check out this history to make yourself think: “hey, at least I didn’t do that.” The variety of awkward moments is endless, but some of humanity’s most cringe-worthy moments have been better documented than others.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |