Chapter 467

It was Eric’s turn to shine - once you’d identified all the likely witnesses the plaintiffs might call, you had both put in work on the lines of questioning that could counteract them and then split them up to finalise. Even though you had been the one to identify the potential issue of Fred Garland being the brother-in-law of the Jacobs, he’d ended up on Eric’s list so it was on him to lay things out.

“Hello, Mr Garland,” Eric said after giving his ‘May it please the court’ and asking to approach the witness, walking over to stand calmly. “I’m sure it isn’t a fun experience having your professionalism questioned. Do you need some water before we start cleaning some details up?”

“No, thank you,” ‘Fred’ said. “I’d rather get this over with.”

You narrowed your eyes slightly - that was a little combative. It was hard to know if that was how the Associate was supposed to play the character or if he was injecting a little something extra in there because he was secretly rooting for the Plaintiffs. But then, any witness in any trial would likely be leaning one way or the other, so was it really that different from real life?

“Sure,” Eric said. “Well. First, how many clients have you served, roughly, in the last five years as an Insurance Broker?”

“Probably ... somewhere between thirteen and fourteen thousand,” ‘Fred’ said after briefly glancing at his script.

“That’s an impressive number of clients,” Eric said. “Are you considered a top earner in your brokerage?”

“Top three the last few years,” ‘Fred’ nodded.

“And how many times have you been brought to court based on one of your policies?” Eric asked.

“None,” “Fred’ said.

“Ever get any formal complaints?”

“Nothing that could be taken seriously,” ‘Fred’ said.

“What are the nature of the ‘unserious’ ones?” Eric asked.

“I wouldn’t take unreasonable demands, usually,” ‘Fred’ said. “Or racism, bigotry, misogyny. Usually when someone has such an awful record that they can’t get anything except extremely pricey coverage.”

“Mmm,” Eric hummed and nodded. You were honestly a little impressed at how he was handling the witness. He still had that little bit of odd, buddy-buddy confidence but all of the silly shit about him had dropped away. “Have you ever had a client get their policy cancelled on them?”

“It happens,” ‘Fred’ said. “More often than you would think, but usually it doesn’t happen after an accident.”

“Have you ever had a policy cancelled in a case similar to the Jacobs?” Eric asked.

“Never,” ‘Fred’ said.

“Interesting. Even on these low-cost, high-guideline policies, you work out for friends and family?”

“Hasn’t happened before, or since,” ‘Fred’ shook his head.

“That’s good to know, thank you,” Eric said. “Now, earlier you identified the contract and policy you put together for the Jacobs, and which they signed. I was interested in two clauses in particular.” He pulled out a copy of the policy you had prepared, which the Plaintiffs had already entered as Exhibit #1. “I’ve flagged two specific passages. Could you please read the first one?”