The Verdict is in....

This is where I have been spending the last eight days of my life - the Ada County Courthouse in Boise Idaho.

It was an unseasonably warm April afternoon in 2004 when I was driving my dodge stratus listening to my newly purchased CD and dreaming about new loves, boating, schmorgasborgs, and snow cones.  You see it felt as though summer was just around the river bend (should I marry Kokoum?) and I was thrilled for the change in the air.  Plus it was Friday and back then that meant a variety of things could happen from a night game of tennis, to crashing the young single adults dance, or creating a hand clap band.  Needless to say, a few things were on my mind as I approached the section of lights on state street that I will refer to as "Does there seriously need to be this many lights in a row" and for short term will be referred to as "Stop Light City".  Now the stupid thing about all these lights from about 13th street to 25th street is that they aren't timed lights.  Everywhere else in the City of Trees if there is a section of lights in a row they are timed but oh no, not this section.

So there I am just driving along through Stop Light City when I notice to my right out of my peripheral vision, a car suddenly comes to a screeching halt.  It is about this time that I realize I am heading into the intersection and once there I decide to look up at the light.  Once I looked up, I saw the very color I was hoping I wouldn't see - that being red of course - and took appropriate action to slam on my breaks and make a gurgled noise in my throat that I figured would help stop the car at a faster rate.  Just as I am slamming my breaks, a white object was looming in front of me.  I thought for a split second of the split second that all of this took place that I might be able to stop and avoid said object.  Unfortunately, I was unable to stop and hit what happened to be a van on the back quadrant (you may say I T-boned them).

I think I said the word crap and avoided the swears (to my credit) and then proceeded to a nearby parking lot to get information and what not.  Thank the stars alive nobody was hurt and we chatted and I cried and then the police man came and I didn't get a ticket and we all went on our merry way.  I chalked it up to learning experience and got on with my life.

Almost seven years later and after my marriage, graduation from college, Zac's graduation, a move to Berkeley, trips to Mexico, Washington DC, Ohio, California, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, a move to Scottsdale Arizona, a move to Chandler Arizona, the birth of my first born son, and tons of other adventures in between, I was being sued by the man in the van that I hit.  Why you say?  Supposedly this 'fender bender' has caused him years of pain and suffering and thousands of dollars in medical bills.

For the past week and a half, I have been stuck in a court room from 9-2 everyday with a 12 person jury trial dealing with this weak little accident.  I THANKFULLY have had my mother here to be able to help me out with Cru.  They have basically set up shop in a conference room on the back side of our court room where he could sleep and I could feed him.  She took him on walks and has been the ultimate lifesaver in all of this.  This trial has been set, moved, canceled, and settled for almost 4 years now and the dude finally got his day in court with me.

Thankfully I have an ALL-STAR counsel that have been working on this case for years and have found over 1,000 pages of medical history on the man I hit.  It basically boiled down that he claimed he received a closed head injury from this accident which has caused him to be unable to sing publicly, caused tinnitus, caused the left side of his face to sag, made him anxious, caused his allergies to get worse, and caused him to forget things and caused problems with his speech fluency.  He told 3 or 4 doctors that he did not hit his head in the accident (and it was documented) and then about 2 years later he suddenly remembered that oh wait! he did hit his head.  The evidence was stifling but you just never know how a jury is going to rule.

The icing on the cake was a video that is on the Internet that was found of him at some Christian news channel in Colorado.  In court he was this fragile man who couldn't hear, think, or respond to questions because he was in so much pain and confused.  His head shook worse than a leaf in Autumn and I really did feel bad for him (not thinking that this accident ever caused this, but that in fact he was pretty ill).  So then this video was found and WOAH it was a completely different person.  Full of energy and could speak well and answer questions with no problem and didn't even show his head shaking once!  I think the jury saw right through that.

So yesterday the verdict came in.  I was found unanimously guilty of inattentive driving (which I thought might happen).  He was found not guilty of inattentive driving (which I also thought would happen).  So then it came down to the damages that would be a awarded.  SIDE BAR: In closing arguments my lawyer asked that the jury award him $25,000 or less (because I did cause minor whipblash and minor damages to his car) and his lawyer asked for $250,000 to cover future medical expenses.  I was expecting the jury to come back with $25,000 or more.  So to my surprise, the judge read that the jury awarded him $4,100.  You should have seen my lawyers face - his eyes were bigger than Cru's and his mouth opened up and then he smiled from ear to ear.  We couldn't have asked for a better verdict.  My insurance was going to settle with him for $38,000. Whoops on his part.  I think the jury was TICKED that this silly little accident turned into an eight day trial!  I don't blame them.

Needless to say it was a draining week and a half, full of TONS of information and I did get to learn a lot how the judicial systems works.  I felt like justice was served in this case.  Me and the bailiff became buddies and traded candy throughout the trial.  We had to do it discretely because he isn't suppose to show bias.  He said if we got caught he was going to tell the judge I made him give me candy.  His parting words of wisdom were "Don't get in anymore accidents!"  And I hope I never have to do that again.