Paying court a visit

Any of you ever been to court as a plantiff? How'd it go for you?

And have any of you ever been to court as a defendant? How'd it go for you also?

My family was involved in a civil suit against a trucking company's insurance. Two truckers who were DUI were speeding on a two-lane desert road and struck my father's small pick up as he was heading home from work. They hid pieces of the wreck in the trailers of their trucks and left him on the road to die. The accident caused a severe head injury, nearly severed his left arm, and it took him 13 months to die. The insurance did not want to pay up, so we sued in LA Superior Court back in the 1990s.

I was a witness on behalf of my mother who brought the suit. It was uncomfortable, upsetting, and I cried like a baby on the stand, to the point where I had to be let off the hook to go sit down. I had people in the jury crying, and the judge had to use a tissue himself.

The original insurance policy had a $750,000 payout. The jury awarded $5.2 million.

The injury and resultant care my father required had decimated all that my parents had worked for their entire lives. The neurological ward alone charged almost $1000 a day for care. The jury awarded the amount based on pain, suffering, the lying scum-bag truckers, and the fact that the insurance tried to skate away from their responsibility.

I knew it was necessary in order to receive justice for my mother, but it was difficult, painful, and I never want to see the inside of a courtroom again.

On another occasion, i had to write a victim statement on behalf of my daughter's father, who was murdered by an angry girlfriend. However, I did not want to be in the court room so I sent the statement by mail.

Whatever your reason for being in court, I wish you all the best.