It has obviously been a long while since I have posted.  It seems that this time of year is the busiest, since everything rebounds from winter hibernation.  I recently tried two separate tough civil jury trials.  We won the first one, receiving a “plaintiff’s verdict”.  It was a case involving breach of a contract to convey corporate stock.  The case was close, but the jury ruled in our favor.  The second case was an extremely tough car accident injury case.  My client was hit by a power truck while attempting to make a U turn on an interstate.  The defendant was found negligent by the jury, but my client was also found guilty of comparative negligence.  In West Virginia, if the plaintiff is 50% or more comparatively negligent in the eyes of the jury, there can be no recovery.  We were close.  It was a tough loss.  This was a Mercer County case.  I thoroughly enjoyed the new “elmo” trial presentation system which was recently installed by the WV Supreme Court.

I felt more confident at the conclusion of the trial in the second case than I did for the first.  Yet we won the first and lost the second.  It just goes to show that you never know what will happen in a trial – especially in a civil trial.