0:01

A few warnings for you as a defendant

0:05

on trial.

0:07

Um, the lawyers tend to like to ask you yes

0:11

or no questions

0:13

and try to get you into a groove of just answering yes

0:17

or no, not the yes or no questions, though.

0:19

Have qualifications.

0:21

Do not be intimidated by the lawyer saying,

0:24

just answer yes or no.

0:25

I'm asking you a yes or no question.

0:27

If the answer requires qualification, go ahead and do that.

0:30

Even if it somewhat annoys the, uh, the lawyers, you want

0:34

to get the appropriate truth out there, uh, whether it's,

0:39

uh, qualified or not.

0:41

Um, also do not implicate others at trial.

0:45

It assume that there's going to be some responsibility

0:49

by other people for the mishap, but own your own piece.

0:53

Often the insurers are ensuring other people and

0:56

therefore they don't want you to implicate someone else

0:59

to be added to the list of defendants.

1:03

And finally, understand your defense.

1:07

If your defense is a causation defense, in other words that

1:11

what happened did not cause the damages,

1:15

it's not appropriate to argue

1:18

and argue about the standard of care portion

1:22

of the trial.

1:23

So you can say, yes, we did administer the contrast

1:27

to her even though she was allergic,

1:29

which is a deviation in the standard of care,

1:31

but it did not lead to her hip surgery.

1:34

So the causation is what you're arguing.

1:37

And if you're busy arguing, oh no, we didn't really, uh,

1:40

administer the contrast,

1:41

or she didn't tell us that she had a contrast allergy,

1:43

that's irrelevant to the case.

1:45

And it'll just seem as if you're argumentative.

1:48

So again, in wrap up, you're going to be polite,

1:53

responsive, and paying attention, uh, not defensive.

1:59

And when your lawyer speaks, you're gonna pay attention,

2:02

not speak at the same time.

2:04

And even when you're sitting at the desk prior

2:07

to your testimony or

2:09

before the judge even arrives, you're going to act

2:13

with great decorum and conservative at at atmosphere.

2:19

So at this point, I'm gonna turn it over to Kelly

2:22

and she will talk about from her perspective

2:25

as a plaintiff malpractice lawyer.