Chapter 481

“Plaintiff rests, Your Honour,” Tucker said. The tall blond cheerleader didn’t look happy about it, and you could understand why. He and Samantha had brought another settlement offer to your team as you’d been eating lunch together - they rejected Sabrina’s previous lowball offer and asked for half of the original policy and legal fees. That was still over a million dollars and might have actually been worth it off the top of the trial, but it was way too late now. You all knew that poor Thomas had run up against a brick wall with his plans, and you were left wondering if the three stronger personalities had all been riding on their individual egos.

“Defence,” Judge Mathews said. “You may call your first witness.”

“Actually, Your Honour,” Eric said, standing up. “At this point in time, we would like to file a motion to Dismiss. May I approach?”

Judge Mathews agreed, and Eric delivered a couple of copies of his new motion to the Plaintiff table before moving to speak with the Judge. After a momentarily whispered squabble at the other table, Samantha followed him. Eric handed over his copy of the motion to the Judge and explained himself, there was a quiet conversation as Samantha argued, and then they were both sent back.

“We’ll have a fifteen-minute recess while I digest the motion,” Judge Mathews said.

Eric came back to the table smirking. “He shut her down,” he whispered as he took his seat.

“Any hints on if he is actually considering it?” Sabrina asked.

“Not really, other than that he accepted it at all,” Eric sighed. Then he nodded back down the table and you all turned to see Tucker approaching us.

“We’ll take your last settlement offer,” he said bluntly.

“Yeah, no,” Gemma shook her head. “That isn’t on the table anymore.”

“You didn’t put a time limit on it,” he argued. “And you didn’t give notice it was rescinded.”

“You rejected it twenty minutes ago and made a counteroffer,” you said. “That ends the offer.”

“Well, make it again and we’ll accept,” Tucker said. “We can get this thing wrapped up now before he tosses your motion and we spend another day and a half on this, racking up legal fees your client will end up paying.”

“My guy,” Sabrina said. “Do you think you have any leverage at this point? You should probably read the motion.”

He got a sour look on his face.

“Wait,” Gemma said. “Are you ... are you going to cry?”

“What? No,” he scoffed. “Fuck off.”

“Mr Jackson,” boomed Judge Mathews from the bench. Tucker, getting agitated, had raised his voice a little and had probably been easy to hear. “That sort of language is entirely inappropriate in my court. That will be a $5,000 sanction, which I’ll be happy to allow you to pay to one of the non-profits on my eligible list.”

Tucker’s jaw worked but no sound came out.

“Go sit down, son,” Judge Mathews said, turning off his ‘Judge’ voice but still sounding serious. “You won’t actually be paying the sanction because this is a mock trial, but take it as a warning - don’t tell people to ‘fuck off’ in front of a Judge, especially in their courtroom.”