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court update
Nov. 8th, 2007 06:44 pmToday was the day. Day one, at least. I spent much of yesterday and last night assembling my evidence and finishing my questions list I had (fortunately!) started last weekend. It just wasn't enough. Now that I've finally been in there and asking the questions and trying to introduce evidence through a more-than-reluctant witness, I wish I had more time.
But I don't so I have to make tomorrow better. I spent the bulk of today introducing most of my 47 exhibits and asking the defendant over 200 questions about them and the circumstances that created them. Tomorrow I get to present myself as a witness. No, I don't do the ask-and-answer shtick, I just talk. So that'll be easier and I did do the smart thing by questioning him first, cause now I get to counter his testimony with my own. Then his attorney gets to do cross-examinations and present her own witnesses, which so far are just my Ex and his gf. There was a scheduling concern brought-up about a potential third witness, but whether that was real or bluff I don't know.
The Judge is still steering me a bit, particularly when I get bogged down which happened twice when the defendant flat out refused to acknowledge a couple of the documents as being anything he had seen before. A lot of my case is going to be harder to prove than I had hoped, in part because his answers were all over the place, and in part because as narrow as I thought I was reading the law, it's still a lot tighter than it seems.
All is not lost, as I think I successfully demonstrated through his testimony that he doesn't have anything he can show his financial condition from, and that what business record he may have had would have been insufficient to do so anyway. I also got him to a quasi-admission about paying a creditor after he filed his bankruptcy and deliberately not listing that creditor in his bankruptcy petition, the combination of which is a no-no. If I can get a win just on that--which I think I can--I'll be happy to take it.
More updates tomorrow, if I'm not too frazzled or depressed to post them.
But I don't so I have to make tomorrow better. I spent the bulk of today introducing most of my 47 exhibits and asking the defendant over 200 questions about them and the circumstances that created them. Tomorrow I get to present myself as a witness. No, I don't do the ask-and-answer shtick, I just talk. So that'll be easier and I did do the smart thing by questioning him first, cause now I get to counter his testimony with my own. Then his attorney gets to do cross-examinations and present her own witnesses, which so far are just my Ex and his gf. There was a scheduling concern brought-up about a potential third witness, but whether that was real or bluff I don't know.
The Judge is still steering me a bit, particularly when I get bogged down which happened twice when the defendant flat out refused to acknowledge a couple of the documents as being anything he had seen before. A lot of my case is going to be harder to prove than I had hoped, in part because his answers were all over the place, and in part because as narrow as I thought I was reading the law, it's still a lot tighter than it seems.
All is not lost, as I think I successfully demonstrated through his testimony that he doesn't have anything he can show his financial condition from, and that what business record he may have had would have been insufficient to do so anyway. I also got him to a quasi-admission about paying a creditor after he filed his bankruptcy and deliberately not listing that creditor in his bankruptcy petition, the combination of which is a no-no. If I can get a win just on that--which I think I can--I'll be happy to take it.
More updates tomorrow, if I'm not too frazzled or depressed to post them.
