Re: private eye/dectective cost??
Posted by:
Olde Farte
()
Date: February 26, 2012 06:43PM
I once was on a jury in a trial where the insurance company for a gas company/station had hired a private eye to follow an employee that was suing for injury on the job. The trial apparently started "unexpectedly" (since the parties did not settle beforehand though that apparently had been expected - at least by the private eye). Anyway, the sheriff/marshalls were sent to get the private eye (this was before cell phones) and bring him in to testify. They found him on a golf course. He came into court wearing jeans and a Soldier of Fortune tee shirt.
That set the mood.
He begins his testimony (to attest that the injured party could still fully use his arms, thus was not actually permanently injured), noting that he followed the plaintiff around and filmed him performing certain activities (film - not video). His film is submitted into evidence, the courtroom is darkened, and the projector was turned on.
And we watch as some strange guy unrelated to this trial is entering and leaving a townhouse as he cheats on his wife.
Wrong film?
No - the PI was too cheap to use a separate film roll for each case so we had to sit there as the cheater did his thing til the REAL evidence recording started later in the roll.
It was fun to talk about that in the jury room later on.
Oh - the real film, BTW, had absolutely no resolution of the injury - the injured party didn't do anything at all that convinced us he wasn't injured. In fact, maybe just the opposite.
Total waste of money for the insurance company.
We eventually found for the plaintiff.