Roy Black is an impressive figure in the world of law and one of its most famous and respected trial lawyers, having represented William Kennedy Smith mingle2, Rush Limbaugh, and many others.
Mr. Black explained the competition: each week, the lawyers will be split into teams that will handle real cases. At the end of each week, one or two contestants will be dismissed based on their performance.
Candy claimed that her three-legged dog, Dingo, was dragged through a fence by the defendant’s Mastiffs and brutally mauled
The second case was Karen Allen vs. Bill Ryan. Karen was pulled over by Bill, who was using police lights and sirens, for a traffic violation. Later, she discovered that Bill is not a police officer but is a county coroner with no police authority.
Keith and Aileen of the plaintiff team for the dog case visited Candy to see the fence and to hear exactly what happened. Jason, the third member of the plaintiff team, stayed back to do some research.
Olivier, Regina, and Anika – the defense team for the dog case – met with George at his home and saw how he houses his large dogs. The dogs greeted the lawyers by barking loudly, even as George told them that they are “non-aggressive.” The lawyers looked less than convinced. Things got worse when Regina and Olivier clashed bitterly over trial strategy and their differing styles.
Michael, Kelly, and Deep were the plaintiff’s team for the coroner case. Karen, the woman who was pulled over, explained that when she heard sirens she pulled over and cooperated with Bill, whom she thought was a policeman.
Later, while discussing how to portray Bill Ryan in court, Michael and Deep stressed that they should portray Bill Ryan as a “vigilante,” since the judge would view this in a negative light. Kelly argued that the word “vigilante” would be perceived as positive. Michael and Deep thought this was a bad idea and quickly killed it. According to Michael, Kelly was a weak link whose ideas were often “nonsensical.”
Barrett, Elizabeth, and Chris, the defense team in the coroner case, met with Bill who explained to them that Karen was speeding and that he was only trying to ensure safety on the road. As a public official, and especially one who sees death everyday, he feels that it’s his responsibility to step in when he sees violations that could harm people.
The dog case got underway, and the plaintiffs made a display of bringing Dingo into the courtroom. The defense immediately objected to this tactic. The judge was sympathetic to the objection since bringing in the dog was “aggressive lawyering” in his opinion, but he let them get away with it.
Candy described the attack on her dog. George testified next, shocking the courtroom by wildly shouting “Big dogs running! Big dogs out!” as an example of how he warns his neighbors when his dogs are out. Jason felt that he was the most out-of-control witness he ever saw. When George called Dingo, a crippled, three-legged dog a “menace to society” in front of the whole court, Jason asked to have that comment stricken, which struck Olivier as “boneheaded” since Jason represented the plaintiff and that comment actually helped his case.
Keith was worried that Candy was too unfocused and too emotionally connected to Dingo to be a good witness
The coroner case, which was arbitrated by a no-nonsense judge, started off poorly with a badly constructed opening statement from Kelly. When Michael directly examined Karen, Chris stepped in and aggressively objected to the questioning. Chris’s cross-examination of Karen was equally aggressive, which impressed all the lawyers in the room.