Word: plaintiffs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...years ago, Lawyer Joseph, 29, would have had scant prospects of winning his case. But in Illinois, as in most other states of the U.S., the past few years have seen a striking trend in favor of the plaintiff in damage suits, with ever bigger awards and ever broader liability. Such charitable institutions as churches have been held liable to the extent of having to pay damages out of their previously sacrosanct trust funds. The trend has even shaken the old common-law principle that a government entity is immune from damage claims as long as it stays within...
...handsome, gregarious "King of Torts" smiled benignly at the one-legged skeleton beside him and happily explained the secrets of his success. "The ingredients of a trial lawyer," said Melvin M. (for Mouron) Belli in San Francisco last week, "are imagination and initiative. You need a feeling for the plaintiff, the desire to do him some good and to stick with him through thick and thin, and the guts to do just that when everyone is criticizing you." Belli paused thoughtfully, added: "And a little law will help...
...Grisly Package. Belli's most noteworthy contribution to tort-trials is in his use of "demonstrative evidence," i.e., visual aids. He will take his skeleton, named "Elmer," into the courtroom and show the jury by experts' testimony exactly where plaintiff broke a bone, then stalk to his portable blackboard to draw diagrams of the accident scene. Often he chalks figures to justify the damages he is demanding-so much per hour for pain, so much for medical bills, so much in lost wages, etc., etc.-occasionally makes a deliberate mistake in addition, so as to let an alert...
...paper, tied with twine. Throughout the trial, the jury stared in horrified fascination at the package. Finally, near the end of the trial, Showman Belli slowly and deliberately opened the package-and handed the contents to a startled juror. It was an artificial leg, of the sort the plaintiff would have to wear for the rest of her life. The jury returned an award...
...reprisal by medical associations or of loss of their own malpractice insurance. He got a measure of revenge in a 1949 case in which he appeared for an aging woman who charged that a specialist had promised to give her "the breasts of a virgin." The doctor, complained the plaintiff, had mutilated her instead. The judge permitted the plaintiff to disrobe to the waist before the jury in the judge's chambers. "She stood there," says Belli, "the tears dripping down. I figured later it was worth $30,000 a tear...