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You’ve been involved in a car accident and today is the day of your trial. And I have
on the witness stand the person that you were involved in the accident with and I’m about
to question them on cross-examination. And I want you to listen carefully at how getting
caught in a contradiction might be very bad for someone’s case at trial. You remember
being involved in a deposition a few months ago, is that right? At that deposition, you
testified to a number of different things, do you remember that? OK. Now, you were in
this courtroom for my client’s testimony a short while ago, do you remember that? And
you remember when my client was up on the stand he testified about the day of the accident.
And he testified about how he remembers he was going a particular speed on the road right
before he was involved in the accident he was involved in with your motor vehicle. And
you remember that he stated specifically that he was driving under the posted speed limit.
Now, of course, you know the posted speed limit on that road on that day was 30 miles
per hour. And you also remember that my client testified that he was going approximately
20 miles an hour. Now, I want to ask you a couple of questions about what you remember
about that day. Now you remember testifying that you first saw my vehicle when he was
approximately 20 to 30 feet from you. You remember that, right? Of course, you also
remember testifying at that deposition that when you first saw my client’s vehicle,
you saw it about 2 to 3 seconds before the accident occurred. You remember that, correct?
Now finally, I want to point out that you testified on direct examination when your
attorney was questioning you that you know for certain that my client’s vehicle was
going 40 miles an hour before the accident occurred. You remember that testimony, correct?
Thank you. Now, those are some questions that I asked him on cross-examination and it may
not make a whole lot of sense at this point why I asked him those particular questions
in that particular order. Well, I want to fast forward a little bit to what I would
then say on my closing argument in front of the jury to wrap this all up. And again show
you how getting caught in a contradiction might be very bad for someone’s case. “Ladies
and gentlemen of the jury, I want to thank you again for your attention over the course
of the past couple days of this trial. Now I want to point your attention to a couple
of things that the defendant – the person sitting right there – said in the witness
stand when he was asked questions today. Now, when his lawyer asked him questions about
what my client was doing on the day of the accident. He swore that the driver of the
car – that my client – was driving 40 miles an hour, which would of course have
been 10 miles over the posted speed limit. Yet, when he got up there on cross-examination
he also testified to the fact that he remembered that he first saw my client’s car approximately
2 to 3 seconds before the accident occurred and that he first saw my client’s car 20
to 30 feet away from his vehicle, when he first saw him. Now, I don’t want to do the
math for you right here but when you go back to the jury room to deliberate it out yourselves
that if those 2 things are true - that if he first saw my client 3 seconds before the
accident, 20 to 30 feet from his car - my client’s vehicle could not have been going
more than 20 miles an hour, which is 10 miles an hour below the posted speed limit.” I’m
sure you saw what I just did there and again this is a very simplified example of how catching
someone in prior deposition testimony can really come back to haunt them the day of
trial. Now lest you be tempted to go and check my math, I wouldn’t quite do that but you
get the point. And the point is that a prepared lawyer before a deposition or before a trial
can really be the difference between winning and losing a case. Now you’re watching this
video because you may have experienced a motor vehicle experience of your own and you may
have some questions that you want answered. So I want you to give me a call at the number
that’s appearing on your screen now. My name is Jonathan Macri and I’m an attorney
at Parker Waichman. And we deal with car accidents every day and I have a lot of experience,
specifically with car accident cases and I’d love to answer any questions that you might
have. So once again, thank you for watching and I hope you have a great day.