Originally posted by dmadman43
I don't think any of those were ambulance chasers. Most were not trial lawyers. Many were not even practicing lawyers. "A" for effort, though.
dmadman, when I was in law school and taking trial advocacy classes, we were given a famous example of "don't ask a question unless you already know the answer."
here's the example (I'm paraphrasing):
The lawyer is questioning a witness who claims to have seen the murder take place in the dark woods. the lawyer represents the defendant, Mr. X.
lawyer: so you saw Mr. X hit Mr. W in the woods?
witness: yes, Mr. X hit Mr. W with an axe.
lawyer: and what time of day was this?
witness: 11:00 at night.
lawyer: and how did you see it?
witness: there was a full moon. the moonlight was shining on the blade.
(at this point all the students in the room think the lawyer's in really big trouble, but...)
the lawyer pulls out his copy of The Farmer's Almanac. after asking the judge to accept the Almanac as truthful (the judge does so) he opnes the book to the page describing the phases of the moon.
lawyer: it says here, that on the date in question, the moon set at 9:00 pm. how could you have seen the murder take place in the light of the full moon when the moon set two hours earlier?
Mr. X got acquitted.
the lawyer in question was Abraham Lincoln.
Honest Abe was (gasp!) a DEFENSE ATTORNEY!