The Most Chaotic Courtroom Showdowns That Left Even the Judges Stunned

Inside a court room in front of a judge is one of last places you ever want to be. However, the stories below from the accounts of lawyers and clients put a light on cases more chaotic than any crime show on television.

Pay your child support, respect the judge, or you may end up like these Redditors on trial!

The Immediate Settlement

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I won a case in NYC where my client tried to exploit a really stupid law, which I was able to use to win the case.

This was a slip and fall case where my client had tripped on a piece of broken sidewalk outside of the Natural History Museum and shattered her arm and wrist.

The law is that a property owner is responsible for the sidewalk directly outside of their property.

Even if they can’t fix it, they have a duty to warn people about hazards and mark the area off. The museum was owned by the city.

There’s another concept called sovereign immunity, which is that governments can’t be sued without their consent.

It seems that the city has won, but unfortunately, they had also passed a very stupid law.

The law stated that the city would be exempt from sovereign immunity if it can be proven that the city was aware of the hazard that caused the accident.

Meaning, you would have to show that you informed the Secretary of State/Governor/Mayor etc. of the exact specific crack in the sidewalk before the injury occurs, and you had to do so in writing with ample time for the city to remedy it (180 days in advance IIRC).

Under normal circumstances, this is impossible because no one anticipates tripping on the sidewalk 180 days in advance. And they almost never have the foresight to write a letter to the mayor about that specific crack. Luckily, someone came up with an ingenious plan. There was a non-profit which would go around the city and record with insane specificity each and every crack, pothole, protrusion, and other hazard.

They then publish these maps while serving copies to the government, with the express purpose of combatting sovereign immunity defenses in slip and fall cases against the government.

I got a hold of one of these maps and visited the site. I was able to take pictures of the section of the sidewalk where my client fell.

You could see newly placed concrete over the area in the exact position indicated on the map, showing that the sidewalk had been repaired after my client slipped.

Unaware of my research, the government’s attorney brought up the sovereign immunity defense and outlined all of the stupid steps I would have needed to go through to overcome their motion to dismiss.

My response was, “Oh you mean this?” and gave them the map. Immediate settlement.

Story credit: Reddit / FattyESQ

Stained Reputation

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I had a woman with an expensive fur coat who claimed that the laundromat ruined it. It was a bit ruined, but the laundromat said that the stains were already there. The judge ordered an expert opinion—and it revealed so much more than we bargained for. The coat had traces of drugs all over it. They raided her place where they found her husband’s big stash of drugs. She should have just taken the stains.

Story credit: Reddit / MrSatan2

Misdirected Anger

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I had a client who, despite being a large man, had been domestically mistreated by his much smaller wife throughout their marriage.

After the divorce, she turned her anger on their son. He ran away one day to live with his dad, and we filed to restrict his ex’s parenting time and ask for a permanent modification to the custody agreement.

At the permanent hearing, she denied hurting the child or my client in front of the child, said she never threatened anyone ever, and that she never made disparaging remarks about my client in front of their son, either. But there was one big thing she didn’t know and couldn’t tell her attorney. My client had recorded multiple instances of her doing all of these things.

So I called my client back up for rebuttal right after her testimony and played an audio recording of her screaming at my client, threatening to break his face in, and calling him a loser, all while the child could be heard in the background begging her to stop.

I looked over at the other attorney and she had her face in her hands. We won.

Story credit: Reddit / BiscuitsUndGravy

Winner, Winner

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This woman won $1.3million in a lottery pool and filed for divorce 11 days later. She never mentioned her lottery winnings to her husband.

She also did not disclose the proceeds during the divorce. She would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for a letter that arrived at their former marital residence over two years after the divorce…

The letter was an offer to buy out her lottery annuity with a lump sum payment. The husband promptly lawyered up and the family court awarded 100% of the prize proceeds to him.

Story credit: Reddit / grumpyGrampus