Deponent

So yesterday Wifey and I did something together we only did once before, and it was back in 1989: we sat for depositions.

The one nearly 30 years ago was much funnier.  When D1 was born, my Mom brought her then friend Mae and Mae's sister Ettie (Mom loved to call her E.T.) to visit the baby. Actually, Mae was the bringer -- Mom would never drive all the way from Delray to our Kendall home.  Wifey brought in sandwiches, and Ettie was walking with hers, and our beloved Labrador, Midnight, was overcome with food lust, as was typical, and decided to share Ettie's sandwich. His 95 pounds of retriever ebullience knocked the old lady down, and she ended up breaking her ankle.

By the time I returned from work, the three old ladies had left, and I called Ettie to see how she was. She was ok, but had indeed broken an ankle. I told her to get a lawyer, as we had homeowner's coverage, and it would be unethical of me, a lawyer, to represent her against ourselves. She did, and the lawyer tried to settle with our carrier, State Farm. State Farm tried to shortchange Ettie, and so suit was filed. I got to pick my defense lawyer, and I choose a fellow I had become buddies with -- Richard.

Ettie's lawyer came to depose Wifey and I -- he merely had to establish we lacked a "Bad Dog" sign, which would have given State Farm a defense.  Midnight was no bad dog -- he was, well, just a bit too wild, which was indeed our fault.  Midnight slinked around our feet as the depo went forward -- he seemed to know he had caused trouble. After we were done, State Farm did the right think and paid Ettie and her lawyer. 

Miami being the small town/big city it is, Richard is about to become the father in law of one of D1's closest friends. He's become very successful, and I love reminding everyone that he started out representing a black Lab named Midnight...

Well, State Farm hasn't changed their claim practices in nearly 30 years. In April of '15, their insured, and ancient but sweet man , also named Richard (the parallels amaze) pulled out his SUV in Coral Gables and crashed into Wifey's SUV. Wifey had a broken wrist.

After she finished treatment, I wrote to State Farm and asked to settle. Some nasty adjuster in Lakeland acknowledged that Wifey's treating doctor, Lew, an old friend, was indeed very conservative, and if he said Wifey had a permanent injury, she was inclined to believe it. Also, her insured was totally at fault, so they would offer to settle for LESS than the medical bills.

Ha. As if. We put the thing into suit, as we say in the biz, and last week our young Turk Vince deposed the ancient man. He was sweet -- from Oklahoma, now living in Guatemala with his Latina wife. He recalled events a bit differently than they occurred -- thought Wifey was speeding, and that a cop who saw the whole thing blamed her. But he couldn't explain why that cop gave HIM the ticket. Also, and this was the best part for me -- he remembered that Wifey's SON came to the scene.

Of course, it was me. The court reporter said "You'd better not tell your wife that" and I replied that I planned to tell her that very night.

Anyway, yesterday came our turn, and the defense lawyer, a nice enough native Jewish Miami guy who went to Norland High in the 70s when they had Jews there, took a very courteous and thorough depo of us.  Wifey's lasted over three hours -- mine was under an hour.

We have a mediation next week. I think State Farm might come up with some more shekels. If not, the case will be an excellent training case for Vince -- Stu would have to pay money to send him to civil trial school, and this case could train him while getting us the fair deal.

Last night, Wifey asked why they needed all of the details about her bad back, which has nothing to do with her broken wrist. I explained they would try to show that her wrist issues are minimal in her life compared to her years of fighting back pain.

We're just both grateful the bad back no longer rears its ugly head.

So State Farm is, as all of us in the business know, no one's good neighbor. That's ok. 20 years past, I gave them the opportunity to settle a case for $10,000.00. They hedged, claiming the quadriplegic child I represented wasn't entitled to the money, as she lived in the same house as her bad driver aunt, who had caused the injury.

We filed suit, and they paid in the millions. The child passed away some months after the settlement.

I don't think Wifey's case is worth in the millions, but with the right Miami Dade jury, you never know.  I guess we'll find out in the coming months...