Ive waited a long time for juries sometimes. And sometimes they came back pretty quickly. Memorable victories always seemed to be short deliberations. Twenty minutes in Moab on a multiple felony case, where every member of the jury on their way back into the courtroom made eye contact with both me and the husband and wife clients I had just represented. Second and third degree felony charges. The old cowboy in the plaid shirt that ended up being the jury foreperson, winked at me. I knew the verdict before it was read out loud. Or the other cases with 20 minute not guilty verdicts on pretty memorable cases, like the one where I used the Barney Fife defense. Good times. . . Then there was that federal case with the jury that was out three days, until midnight the first two, that is the oft-cited title of my pending autobiography. There was the Alaska civil case between competing phone book publishers that happened over the last three weeks of the first Gulf War, with the jury deliberating two full days during the ground war conclusion. Those were some stressful days. Both sides in the Student v. Alpine School District case filed their closing arguments in writing on May 22nd, and the decision from the Independent Hearing Officer is hours away from being released, and published in the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Law Reporter, on June 9th. Granted, I havent been required to remain within 15 minutes of the courthouse for the verdict for the past 17 days, but this is a long wait on what feels just like a big trial. I lost both of those longer deliberation cases, too. So, I will publish here tomorrow the published decision in Student v. Alpine School District, Utah No. 14-001, or a link to the entire decision. Win, lose or draw.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 04:42:30 +0000