So Cal Real Estate News

I used to try to avoid Jury Duty; now I figure it’s just part of being a good citizen. However, being self-employed, I try to limit the amount of days I have to put in.

It’s always an interesting experience. As a bonus, I usually take some things back that relate to real estate.

After getting up early to write our April Fool’s Post, I spent last Tuesday at OC’s “West Justice Center.” This time it confirmed some of my suspicions about the difference between lawyers and Realtors.

Shortly after checking in & donating my felt tip marker to the officer at the door, I was sent up to a courtroom to be in a jury pool with about a hundred of my new best friends.

After instructions from a bemused bailiff we were given our numbers & sworn in by the court clerk. Then we all rose so the judge could come in.

His honor told us this was a criminal case that would take 5-6 days of our lives if we ended up on the jury. I had figured a day or two was about all I could do, but it sounded like this judge wasn’t going to buy that. “Jury duty is like military service,” he said. Guess he hadn’t heard that the military draft was abolished decades ago. “Unless this would cause a life-altering hardship,” the judge continued, “you need to serve.” Wow–life altering!

Then we got a summary of the case from the judge and each of the two attorneys. (I thought there were 3 attorneys, but one turned out to be the defendant.) There were 3 charges–assault with a gun, endangering a child, & something else like making terrible threats.

The defendant’s attorney said his client was a wonderful guy with a PhD from Stanford. He turned out to be a 60-something guy who I thought was another attorney.

What actually happened, the defense lawyer told us, was some slimeball got some road rage and was banging on this poor old guy’s window, flipping him off, & yelling terrible things. When the slimeball went back to his car, the poor old Stanford PhD, who felt his life was threatened, decided the best way to protect himself was to find something to confront the slimeball with.

I would have thought the best way to protect myself would be to just drive off, but I don’t have a PhD from anywhere, so that shows you how much I know. Anyway, this poor old guy looked in the back seat of his car for something to protect himself with. According to the attorney he was looking for a flashlight, but instead decided on a BB gun that looked exactly like a 22 rifle.

I don’t make this stuff up. I think you need a law degree to do that. Or a PhD from Stanford.

Then the prosecutor said she thought it was probably a real 22, but even if it was a BB gun it was still a firearm. (From the questions she later asked potential jurors the gun somehow had disappeared.) That child endangerment charge was about a kid in the back seat of the slimeball’s car. (She didn’t call him a slimeball, but from the questions she asked prospective jurors about gang members having rights you could tell he probably was.)

At this point it looked to me like this whole thing should have been settled out of court and somebody was just wasting our time & our tax dollars.

In one regard lawyers & realtors basically have the same job–settle a difference of opinion between two parties. A big part of my job is negotiating an agreement between a seller who wants top dollar and a buyer who wants to pay as little as possible. We work hard to try to find common ground and differences that allow us to come up with a “win-win” resolution that works for everybody.

Over my 30 years in real estate, I’ve had lots of opportunity to be in court (probates, divorces, etc.), to interact with lawyers, and be deposed a few times myself. I’ve concluded that most lawyers, who are generally paid by the hour, have a financial incentive to drag things out. So it’s not in their best interest to get a deal done, which is really court hearings come in.

Realtors, on the other hand, are paid by the job, so we try to get the deal done as quickly as possible.

I think if lawyers were paid by the job, like realtors, most cases would be settled in record time and very few would go to trial.

I was pretty sure that we were looking at a simple traffic dispute that should never have gone to trial. Two jerks got into an argument, the police were called & arrested one of them. Then the D.A. threw the book at him expecting him to plea bargain down to something more minor. But somebody’s ego got in the way & the deal never got done. So now I and 100 of my new best friends were wasting a day so somebody could prove a point. Probably not the attitude an impartial juror should have.

At this point the first 18 prospective jurors were called up to be questioned by the judge and the attorneys. Eventually about half of them were “thanked and excused” by either the judge or one of the attorneys.

After a ten minute potty break another 9 were called up, same drill, & this time maybe 7 of them were “thanked & excused,” along with one or two of the remaining 9 from the first group. Almost a wash.

Lunch break–and we were warned to be back at 1:30 sharp. Went home to do some work & eat simultaneously, got back a few minutes late, then waited 10 minutes for them to open the courtroom. Apparently punctuality is more important for jurors than for judges. I’m guessing here–I don’t have a law degree either.

Same drill again, but they kept most of them this time. By now they had 12 jurors and 1 alternate, & only needed one more alternate. Maybe 30 of us remained in the pool, & my odds were looking pretty good.

But I got called up third of the final 6 to be examined. 1 in 6–pretty good odds, I thought.

When the hardship question came up, I explained that I was self employed, sole source of income for the family, and dealing with some health issues with my 87 year old mother as well. I could tell that wasn’t going to fly. Since the defense lawyer had implied that the case might take longer than six days, I stated that it was extremely difficult for me to be away from my job for 6 days, & if the case went longer, I wasn’t sure I could remain objective, which was a true statement. How did the judge know how long these guys would talk, or how long the jury would take, anyway. He was probably giving us a best case scenario.

“The time frame I gave you is correct,” his honor responded, & at that point I wondered if I might be held in contempt of court. I guess they teach you how to predict the future in law school, too. I should have asked him when the housing market would hit bottom, but it didn’t look like I was going to get a chance to ask any questions.

Then we got to “Is anybody in your family or any close friends in law enforcement or lawyers?”

“No,” I responded, “but over my 30 years in real estate, I’ve developed some strong feelings about lawyers that could bias my view of this case.”

The judge asked for an explanation, so I told him my theory that attorneys just drag things out and that this whole thing never should have gotten this far. I heard some positive mummers from the jurors behind me, & kept going. “In fact,” I said as I looked at the attorneys, “I’d almost guarantee that the judge has already told you that.” From their reaction, I’d guess I was right.

Wow–venting to two attorneys & hopefully getting myself “thanked and excused” all at the same time. Does it get any better?

Later I wished I’d added that I thought at least one of the lawyers and/or the defendant had no regard for wasting a day out of the lives of 80 potential jurors, nor a week out of the lives of the 14 jurors & alternates selected, let alone the court’s time. Somebody at those two tables had a pretty big ego. Maybe three somebodies.

Not all that different from today’s sellers who reject a reasonable offer because his neighbor got more two months ago. Except those sellers aren’t wasting 80 innocent people’s time.

Well, the defense attorney now started to hammer me about if I could be impartial to his client. A regular cross-examination. I actually went to Biola University on a debate scholarship, so I kind of enjoy this sort of thing.

“Can’t you set aside your beliefs to give the defendant a fair trial?”

“My convictions are part of who I am.”

“But can’t you simply consider the case on it’s merits?”

“I will consider the case based on my life experiences.”

“But. . .” yadda, yadda, yadda. . . .

“I believe we’re here because someone’s being a jerk and not settling, and once I figure out who that person is, I will not have a very positive view of their case.” That was the truth, but I also figured it should get one of the two attorneys to “thank and excuse” me.

“Well. . .” yadda, yadda, yadda. . . .

“Sir, if your client is innocent, he has nothing to fear from me.”

The judge actually gave this guy extra time to cross examine me. Go figure. I don’t even own a bb gun.

Well, when all the dust settled, nobody objected to any of us 6.

Fortunately, the judge took the first guy called up of our group, and all the rest of us got to go back to the jury waiting room. By the time I got there they were letting everyone go home.

Wednesday, I was almost tempted to show up in the audience to see what the real story was. For about 25 seconds.

Sellers, you should be aware that after escrow closes your buyer will probably get several friendly letters from lawyers checking to see if there were any problems they could help clear up.

Under California law, I’m told you are not only responsible for errors and omissions you make in the sale, but also for any committed by your agent. Another reason to look for an honest, experience agent (see “Top 5 ways NOT to pick an agent“). Maybe even one who’s spent some time in jury duty.

Tags: Business, how to, jury duty, justice, justice in America, law, lawyers, litigation, Realtors, the difference between lawyers and realtors

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.