reasonably deny Mr. White's claim?'
'I did.'
'And what was your conclusion?'
Jack says, 'Based on the totality of the facts we learned, I concluded that there was sufficient evidence to deny the claim.'
'Beyond a reasonable doubt?'
'I don't know if I could describe it in those words,' Jack says. 'Let me just say that I'd have to be damn sure.'
'And were you 'damn sure' that Mr. White was involved in this fire?'
Jack looks at the jury.
Says, ' Damn sure.'
'No further questions. Thank you.'
Goddamn Billy breaks into applause.
Turns back to the corporate mucks and points to the monitor.
Solid 10s across the board.
Jack Wade had killed.
88
Paul Gordon is making his case in front of Judge John Bickford.
Actually, he's not so much making his case as he is leaving his case, the case in question being a Halliburton attach with twenty K in cash inside.
See, they're seated at this banquette at the Rusty Pelican in Newport Beach, and Gordon has the case underneath the table by his leg, and he and Bickford are discussing an element of the law.
'I'll be filing suit against Cal Fire and Life,' Gordon's telling him. 'You're going to get the case.'
'If it comes up in my rotation,' Bickford says.
'It will come up in your rotation,' Gordon says.
The assigning judge having been on three fishing trips down on the Mexican coast on Gordon's boat. Fishing trips, Dodgers tickets, a 'legal seminar' in Italy compliments of Gordon's firm… the case will get assigned where it's supposed to get assigned.
Gordon says, 'Tom Casey's going to come whining to you about a discovery issue involving a claims adjuster's prior record. He'll ask you to exclude all discovery prior to the adjuster's handling of the file in suit.'
'And?'
'And I'd like you to consider denying that motion.'
Bickford sips his scotch. He's sixty-five years old, retirement looms, and judges do not make the kind of money, say, plaintiff's attorneys do. Mrs. Bickford has skin cancer…
Bickford asks, 'Are you writing me a brief?'
'It's in the case.'
'How many pages?'
'Twenty.'
Bickford sets his glass down. 'That's not very long.'
'Standard,' Gordon says.
'But this is a big case for you, Paul,' Bickford says. 'I would think you'd want to write more. Nail down every point.'
'Twenty's always been good enough in the past,' Gordon says. Like, Don't jerk me around at this stage of the game. I own you, you old bastard.
'The past,' Bickford says, 'is a fleeting dream. An insubstantial thing.'
Like twenty large of my money is now insubstantial? Gordon asks himself.
'You know,' Gordon says, 'you might be right. Maybe another judge will catch this case.'
Bickford sighs. It's one thing to acknowledge yourself a whore. To acknowledge yourself a cheap whore is yet another level of self-abasement. And yet the money is needed.
'Twenty pages should be adequate to make a persuasive argument,' Bickford says.
'Thank you for your consideration,' Gordon says. He finishes his drink and gets up. He doesn't have the case with him when he walks out.
Judge John Bickford orders another scotch. Sits for a long time and watches the boats bob against their slips in the harbor.
He remembers when he believed in the law.
89
'You're a good claims investigator, aren't you, Mr. Smith?'
Tom Casey's first question in his cross-examination of Jack.
A question known in the cross-exam business as an 'entry question.' Which, just like an entry wound, can be small and even painless.
And it's the smart move, Jack thinks, which is just what you'd expect from Casey. It's smart not to attack me right away, because the jury likes me right now, and Casey doesn't want to antagonize them by attacking me too soon. So he'll lay back and set the trap.
'I hope I'm a good claims adjuster,' Jack says.
Cross-exam witness rule number one: Try to answer in complete sentences, not just yes or no. Rule number two: Use your own language, not the lawyer's.
Casey taught him this stuff over the years. That the lawyer's real purpose in a cross-exam is for the lawyer to testify, and just get the witness to nod and shake his head like one of those bobble-head dogs in the rear window of a car.
'Cross-exam,' Casey has lectured, 'is a 'dig me' game. The lawyer wants to strut his stuff in front of the jury. He wants to show how smart he is, how right he is. Dig me.'
Now Casey asks, 'And part of adjusting claims is investigating the claim, right?'
'Yes,' Jack says. 'We need to find out what happened, what is damaged or lost, and how much it will cost to repair and replace.'
'And the reason you need to find out what happened,' Casey says, 'is so that you can determine if you are even going to honor the claim in the first place, isn't that right?'
'That's one of the reasons.'
'So do you consider yourself a good investigator?'
Knowing that Jack is going to answer more or less yes. If he answers no, he's screwed. If he answers yes, he's another step closer to the ambush.
But there's no choice given the question.
'Yes, I think I do a good job.'
'And part of doing a good job is performing a thorough investigation, right?'
They both know the game here. Casey's trying to get Jack to set a standard for himself, a bar that he'll have to jump over down the line. Casey wants to set it as high as possible.
So Jack answers, 'We need to find the facts that will let us make a reasonable decision.'
'You need to carefully examine all the facts around a loss and make a decision based on your analysis, right?'
'We need to examine all the relevant facts,' Jack says.
'So finding and examining all the relevant facts is what makes a good claims investigation?'
'Yes.'
