‘CAN’T CHANGE THE LAW

A biker was riding along on a South Dakota highway, not a care in the world, when he was hit from behind by a truck.  Or, depending on which version you believe, a pickup was sliding easily down the road when a biker cut him off out of nowhere and they collided.  Regardless, the tranquility of Midwestern flatlands was disturbed by crashing metal, and the biker was grievously injured and sued.

At trial, the jury returned a verdict for the truck driver.  But the story does not end there.  It came out that a juror (the foreperson no less) said things in the jury room which showed her to have been emotionally biased against the biker and indeed against people suing others over car accidents in general.  She had denied any bias when she was being questioned.  The biker had been facing its very own runaway jury, straight from a John Grisham novel.

Sadly, he hit a rule of evidence that keeps what happens in the jury room, in the jury room.  Only outside influences may be brought to bear to question a verdict and obtain a new trial.

That, of course, has nothing to do with business law or commercial litigation.  But it has a lot to do with the legal system in general.  Neither the litigants nor lawyers nor judges can change the law, even when it seems wrong.  Arguably, the biker should have received a new trial with an impartial jury.  But the law said otherwise, and the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviewed the case, confirmed this to be the case.

So it is that lawyers can only apply the law, and make the best arguments they know under it.  The good (and honest) ones will take care to chart the legal currents with their clients ahead of time.