Jesus says to us: "This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. . . I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another" (John 15:12-17).
Peppered throughout 4-day trial, in which each side had 7 hours to present their evidence, were talks about homelessness and, as I mentioned above, being a good neighbor. A few of the prospective jurors, during voir dire, were very vocal about their views on homelessness in Austin, ranging from those who believe that the government is not doing enough to help people experiencing homelessness to those who believe that homelessness is a lifestyle.
As I reflected on this, something that Pope Leo XIV said in his recent General Audience (5/28/2025) struck me. The Holy Father reflected on the parable of the "good" Samaritan and had this to say about compassion:
". . .before being a religious matter, compassion is a question of humanity! Before being believers, we are called to be human. . .Compassion is expressed through practical gestures. The Evangelist Luke ponders the actions of the Samaritan, whom we call “good”, but in the text he is simply a person: a Samaritan approaches, because if you want to help someone, you cannot think of keeping your distance, you have to get involved, get dirty, perhaps be contaminated. .. . .when will we too be capable of interrupting our journey and having compassion? When we understand that the wounded man in the street represents each one of us. And then the memory of all the times that Jesus stopped to take care of us will make us more capable of compassion."
Turning back to the trial itself, while I had to work pass midnight several days in a row and slept for only 4-5 hours a night, it was a relatively stress-free jury trial. I got to experience pretrial, voir dire, and even waited around while the jury deliberated. It was great that we did not have deposition designations and depo video clips to prepare and play because all the witnesses testified in-person. While we had ~280 exhibits to their ~50 exhibits, there were not a lot of redactions or additional work to prove the authenticity of the documents, especially with native files.
Of course, Chris was a guru with trial presentation to the point that one of our clients called him a "magician" and the jurors, during their deliberation, designated one of them to be their version of "Mr. Stephen" to pull up the exhibits for them. The jurors received from us a joint list of admitted exhibits and a Chromebook with the exhibits on their to review so I did not have to prepare notebooks for them. My litigation assistant, Adam, handled the lunches for us (like he did for our bench trial two weeks earlier) so I am grateful that the courthouse uses LunchDrop and we could eat in the conference room right outside the courtroom.
From a best-practices standpoint, particularly related to trial exhibits, I am happy with how I tracked exhibits that have been admitted because I was able to quickly provide the paralegal on the other with a list of admitted trial exhibits for both sides. She just needed to verify with her notes. It was the same with the court reporter. The process was smooth and "painless" for all of us and I am glad for that.
After the jury came back with the verdict (for our clients. . . woo hoo!), the trial team went out for drinks. One of the attorneys asked me how many trials have I done over the years since I had just completed a bench trial and a jury trial in a month's time. Since 2014, I have done 8 trials. One jury trial in Comal County lasted a month and a half. I had two 2-week jury trials back-to-back years in 2021 & 2022. I also had a week-long criminal trial in federal court and a week-long hearing at the Railroad Commission. I also had 2 week-long arbitrations, one was during the COVID-19 pandemic in December of 2020. Of course, I had cases settled right before trial started, including one in 2023 that we prepared for a jury trial twice and the case settled the morning we had to pick a jury.
One of the attorneys in this jury trial said something that resonated with me. He said that what he liked most about trials is the interaction between the attorneys and even the parties; however, the aspect of trial that he does not like is the long-hours, late nights, and sleep deprivation. I agree with him 100%, even if he was opposing counsel. Ha!
. . .
Other related blogs:
Trial Preparation: A Reflection on Getting to Heaven https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2023/09/trial-preparation-reflection-on-getting.html
Trial Preparation: A Reflection on the Call of Saint Matthew https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2025/05/trial-preparation-reflection-on-call-of.html
Reflecting on Conclave and Pope Leo XIV as the Successor of Peter (May 8, 2025) (UPDATED 5/17/2025) https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2025/05/reflecting-on-conclave-and-pope-leo-xiv.html
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