It's a medical malpractice trial.
We claim that your doctor violated the basic standards of medical care.
We claim your doctor was careless and caused you significant harm and injury.
The defense claims the doctor did nothing wrong.
The defense claims that nothing the doctor did caused or contributed to your injury.
The defense also claims that your injuries are not as bad as you claim to be.
By the way, they also claim that if the doctor did something wrong, then they also blame you for not following the doctor's instructions.
The trial is hotly contested.
We say the sky is blue, the defense says the sky is yellow.
We say it's five o'clock in the afternoon, they say it's 10 o'clock in the morning.
We claim the doctor did something wrong, they claim the doctor treated you appropriately.
The defense's medical expert is on the witness stand being questioned by the defense lawyer.
The judge decides to take a 10 minute break.
During that break the defense lawyer approaches me and makes a substantial settlement offer.
Can I hold off disclosing the settlement offer to my client since I really want to hear the rest of the defense expert's testimony and I want the opportunity to cross-examine this witness and expose his lies?
The reality is that I cannot wait.
I must disclose that settlement offer as soon as possible.
My client needs to make an educated decision about what to do next.
If I hold off and not tell my client about the settlement offer when it comes in and we continue forward taking testimony, the settlement posture may change based upon new testimony that comes out during trial.
In fact, the witness I'm cross-examining can hurt our case dramatically.
That may empower the defense attorney to believe that he can now win this case.
In that instance, the defense lawyer might actually withdraw his offer.
That means my client has now lost the opportunity to settle his case favorably during trial.
