September 1993 - Life Imitates Lawyer Jokes

From Joe Weis of Greenville (Pemberton, Green, Newcomb & Weis), this excerpt from a recent slander trial before Judge Paul Banner of Hunt County. Joe and his partner, Larry Green, represented the defendant, the chair of the board of a local bank. The plaintiff, a doctor, is testifying on direct examination by his attorney:

Q. What did he tell you that the [defendant] had been saying about you?

Mr. Weis: Objection. Hearsay.

Judge Banner: Overruled.

A. He said, "He has been saying the usual things about you that he says about everybody. He called you a lawyer - a liar, and a thief, and a crook."

[laughter]

Judge Banner: Members of the jury, I want to instruct you to disregard anything about a lawyer. I am still a lawyer. Try again, Doctor.

A. I don't think I can recover from that.

Joe adds: "Remarkable as it may seem, the jury found that the defendant had not slandered the doctor."
- posted by texasbar @ 10/16/2009