Yes, I know I usually just post on Mondays, but sometimes things change.  I’ve written before about the years I’ve spent working the psychological and strategic edges of legal trials.  I thought it might be interesting to give intermittent updates about the one that’s just about to begin.  This experiment, however, might be nipped in the bud.  Even though I have already changed specific names, places and other identifying features, it might not be possible for me to write about this due to rules and regulations.  I will check as soon as I meet up with the rest of the team.

I’m hoping to send these posts though my website, www.zacharykleinonline.com, and Facebook.  Even if allowed, I can’t promise a specific number of reports.  Trials like this one quickly become all-consuming with eighteen-hour workdays (do the math to get an idea of the time we end up with for sleep and showers).  And if this is a no go, I’ll continue with my regular Monday appearances, though they will probably published late Sunday nights while I’m away.

Today I fly to a small Midwestern town for a wrongful death case that was initiated in 2010.  The county in which it’s being tried is quite conservative with a definite bias against lawsuits.  And plaintiffs.  Especially a case against a doctor that works in the county’s major medical center.

Truth be told, our legal team usually isn’t comfortable suing a doctor either.  In this case, however, the diagnosing doctor egregiously ignored signs and symptoms that very well could have saved his patient’s life if he bothered to follow his and his nurse’s notes.  The result was that a family man, barely in his 40s, was discharged from the hospital and died the next morning.

It’s always difficult going into battle as a long-shot. First, it takes an enormous amount of preparation (we’re meeting in the town five days early just to finalize our game plan).  We’ve already spent two full weekends running focus groups in another Midwestern town.  Those meetings gave us some very useful information but confirmed our role as the underdog.

And don’t forget, in plaintiff law, a loss means that every penny spent on expenses and every bit of time that has been devoted to the case (months and months of it for this one) is lost unless we overcome the odds.

So why pick up the slingshot and aim at the giant?  Throughout all the time I’ve worked with this team, we’ve looked at every case with the client as our first priority. And once we accept a case, we stick to our commitment–sometimes against our own best interests. This quixotic commitment has kept me packing my bags (and I don’t even like to fly) to be with the group again.

(Hopefully more to come.)