The Case I Served on the Jury For...I know you are all dying to know about it!

Ok, now I am allowed to talk about it!!!! It was over a month of my life that was secret!!!

So the case was Deal vs. Michelin and Discount Tire.

Ok, so on Sept. 27, 2002, Richard Deal-48, Lonnie Deal-26, and Trystan Deal-4, left Las Vegas and headed to their cabin at Duck Creek, near Cedar City, Ut. THey were in a 1977 pickup, and one of the tires was a 1996 Goodyear tire. This tire separated near Washington, Ut. Richard and Lonnie died. So Richard's wife Gaylene was a plaintiff, and the little boy. His mom was not, because her and Lonnie were divorced. They were going for 8 figures.

The plaintiffs claimed that the tire made in 1996 was defective. Their "expert" claimed there were 3 different defects. They claimed there was an open inner liner splice, trapped air in the tire, and porosity. They had a ton of witnesses, and tried for four days to prove this. It took days for their expert to testify. Discount was part of the trial because allegedly they bought the tire there. THat was never proven and they were out of the suit by the end.

Michelin only called 2 witnesses. They had like 14 on their list, but I guess they felt they didn't need it. They pointed out that the tire was 6 years old. It was an all terrain tire, so it would last longer than tires like on my car. Anyhow, they showed pictures of the cut up tread. It had also had a nail repair, and the pointed out that we had no idea how long the tire had run with that hole, with air being allowed into the tire. They also had their own expert to dispute the open splice, trapped air and porosity claims. Their expert was 1000% more credible.

The 2 alternates were dismissed after closing arguments. Then we went to deliberate. We had to get a vote of 6-2. We had that right away....in favor of Michelin.
It was interesting because afterwards the marshall and attorneys could talk to us and we found out things that we couldn't know before. Like that the boy was wearing a seat belt, but the men were not. Hmm. Then we found out that they had been offered settlements throughout, but they wanted their 8 figures I guess. We also found out that they had good insurance, and she gets a really good pension of her husband, so their medical bills and funeral expenses had long been taken care of, and they aren't going to be left penniless.

There is sooo much more. It was very interesting. I know everything there is to know about how tires are made, tested, and what defects they can have!!! But that is a little summary. I think baby loved jury duty. I ate lots of Skittles to keep awake! And he gave me lots of good kicks while i was there.

If you have any questions, fire em at me! I would love to answer!