Chapter 55 Section 5

When he was in middle school, Jane Hilleman never thought of studying law, although his father said that he was suitable for a lawyer because he was very good at expressing his views to persuade others.At the University of Massachusetts, Jane read philosophy. After graduating in 1972, he married a female classmate and went to Rhode Island together, where his wife studied as a graduate student in a school.Philosophy graduates struggle to find decent work, and to support their family, Jane begins selling life insurance to graduate students.Because of his good eloquence, he sold nearly one million dollars of insurance in half a year, but he still didn't like this job.Just as President Nixon's Watergate scandal was being hyped up by the media, Jane simply stayed at home, watching the congressional investigative hearings on TV every day.After three months, I became interested in law.Later, he worked in a social service organization for a while and came into contact with some civil lawsuits. Jane felt that he should develop in this direction.At this time, the relationship between their husband and wife has begun to deteriorate, and the young people are prone to hot-headedness, and divorce after two quarrels.Jane left Rhode Island and entered the law school of Cornell University.

After graduating from law school, Jane worked in a law firm in Washington for a year, specializing in cases related to the Federal Communications Commission, handling such as illegal operations of telephone companies and disputes with customers.He naturally hated dealing with bureaucrats in the government department, and he was impatient to only do odd jobs for those famous lawyers. He couldn't even get a chance to speak in court, so he thought about opening his own office and taking cases.There are too many monks in the big city, so Jane decided to go to a small remote place to start his own business.After wandering around several New England states in the northeastern United States, Jane finally landed in a fishing village called Port Newberry.

The firm has been open for more than a year, and Jane Hilleman has only received a few cases such as wills, divorces, and drunken accidents, and she cannot make ends meet.Just when he was starting to wonder if he was making the right choices in life, Noel Eaton walked into his office.Lore said his only son, 3-year-old Stuart, drowned five years ago in an abandoned stone pit near his home.It was a Saturday, and he and his wife were both on the morning shift at the shoe factory, so they asked the child's grandmother to come and take care of them temporarily.The grandparents and grandchildren played in the backyard for a while, the old lady went into the kitchen to get something, and the child disappeared when she came out.When later found in the rock pit, Stewart was found floating face down in a puddle of dirty water.The stone pit was left after construction by a construction company. After a rainy season, it became a water resort.The day after the child's accident, the construction company sent several bulldozers to fill in the hole.The Eatons had hired a lawyer, and the lawyer sent the pleadings to the court, but nothing came of it.Soon, the old lady passed away.Over the past few years, Lore has called the lawyer from time to time. The last time the lawyer persuaded him to forget it, saying that once the old lady died and there were no witnesses, the case would be more difficult to handle.But Lol just couldn't swallow the breath.

Jane Hilleman took the case.This is the first "real" case he's ever had, and he needs to take depositions, call witnesses, go to court, select a jury, cross-examine opposing witnesses, prepare opening and concluding remarks, etc. etc.Jane hired a photographer to take pictures of the scene of the accident from the air by helicopter, and based on the clues provided by the local newspaper, he found reporters from out of state who had interviewed the scene on the day of the accident, and invited doctors and civil engineers to appear in court as expert witnesses. .By the time the trial began seven months later, Jane had spent more than $15,000 on the case and was several months in arrears on rent and a secretary's salary.

In his opening speech, Jane accused the construction company of malfeasance. They did not fill up the stone pit in time after the construction, or built a fence to enclose the water, or erected signs to warn people to be careful.The defendant was a well-known lawyer who had experienced many battles, and he didn't pay attention to the fledgling Jane En. He even denied that there was such a trap when he came up.After eight days of litigation, when Jane submitted one piece of evidence after another and summoned one witness after another, the other party compromised.On the last day of the trial, the judge summoned the lawyers of both parties before the judge and said that the defendant had proposed mediation and offered to pay $75,000 in damages to settle the case.Jane said that he needed to ask the client's opinion.

In the corridor outside the court, a staff member called Jane aside and advised: "A drunk drove his car into someone's garden and killed someone's child, and he only paid 20,000 yuan. 75,000 yuan is not enough. not enough." But after the better part of a year of hard work, Jan Hilleman really wanted to hear the jury's verdict.He told the Eatons truthfully about the offer, and said, "I feel like I can win." Lol said, "We listen to you." The concluding remarks of the two sides ended before lunch.When the jurors were deliberating in the deliberation room, Jane paced back and forth in the corridor, too nervous to eat.It took the jury only 1 hour and 15 minutes to send back their verdict to the court: $250,000 in damages, plus $50,000 in interest!According to the agreement, Jian En gets one-third of the commission.

Jane used the 100,000 US dollars to pay off all the debts, sent a big red envelope to the secretary, and went to the tailor to order some decent suits.Jane felt that he had the conditions to return to the metropolis, so he sent cover letters to several Boston law firms specializing in personal injury compensation cases, including Reed Mulligan.But no one paid him any attention for several months. While Jane was waiting, a big case came across.A Port Newberry businessman was driving his newly purchased single-engine plane, the Piper Arrow, with three friends to spend the weekend in Atlantic City, when something happened on the way back.None of the four survived when the plane crashed into the beach on Long Island, New York.One of the women had just divorced not long ago, and her 4-year-old son followed her ex-husband.The child's father met Jian En's secretary in a bar and talked about it, saying that he was going to ask a lawyer to represent his son to claim compensation from the insurance company.

"My boss is just the lawyer you need," Jane's secretary said. Jane Hilleman was just starting to work on the case when he received a call from the Reed-Mulrigan law firm saying that he had received his cover letter and asked if Jane would like to come to Boston for a presentation.