The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1920-10-30
THE JOB NOT ALL GRAVY
FOR LAWYERS AND JUDGE

Did you eevr stop to think what
the lawyers and the judge are up
against when technical case comes
up for hearing. The layman often
| gets the impression that the lawyers
have a snap, but did you ever take
part in an interscholastic debate?
| Every time a lawyer has case up
| for trial he has to take part in some
thing bigger and more important
| than an interscholastic debate. He
has to be mentally awake and the
machinery behind his reasoning pow
ers must be we'll oiled all during the
trial of the case, and he has no time
| for idle thinking as such time.
He must not only be alert but
must have knowledge of many sub
jects which are not found in his dusty
| law books. What does the ordinary
person understand by the following
sentence which was part of the tes-
timony in a recent case heard in the
Stevens county court room, the case
coming up as the result of brain
injury? at is at the base where the
branches come off the Circle of
Willis, an arterial anastomosis at the
base of the brain between the ter
minal branches of the carotid and
basiar arteries, and it is at this
point that the vessel ruptures and
= 90 %Lo mi nInf
will be found here"
A sentence like that is enough to
cause almost anyone but lawyer,
Judge or doctor to throw up their
hands and cry "Kamerad."
Here is another mouthful from the
same case: "It is an anatomical
and surgical impossibility. Such an
injury as this we are considering is
theoretically psychological and in
this country is heard of only in medi-
cal legal cases. He did not receive
injury by contra cop to the front
part of the brain as you would ma
turally suppose. 1t would be the
medula. If your injury is in the
neighboring decussation, it is in the
brain tissue and the motor centers
to the left and in front of that In
this case it would have to be near
the Fissure. Rolando."
These are just occasional sentences
quoted from the testimony OF one OF
the witnesses and the witnesses tes-
titled all day in this particular case.
The lawyers and the judge had to
listen to it all, the judge to make
Just decision and the lawyers to fight
the case for their clients.
One of the principal witnesses in
the case glibly and without the
slightest hesitancy reeled off sentence
after sentence like the following
sample: "Disease of the cardio vas
cular system would cause paralysis
and this would be called late tromatic
apoplexy. This clot is down in the
motor centers. The menangeal comes
off the internal carotid. It is pos
sible by contra cop to get a bump
which will cause such a laceration
but he did not get such bump be-
cause he did not get hemorrhage i'm
mediately and within IL hours be
paralyzed, as he was not paralyzed
until II days after the injury"
This particular witness was so
thoroughly stepped in medical terms
that he failed even to make the effort
to translate his terms into common
American language.
The lawyer on the same side of
the case as the principal witness had
travelled around with this same wit
ness on similar cases and had mapped
out in his own mind something of the
course of the nerves and blood YES
sells which enter the head and was
able to question the witness intelli-
gently, but the questions coming from
the lawyer on the other side OF the
case We're slow, hating and made
only after much thought.
It is noteworthy that the judge has
not as yet rendered final decision in
the case. Do not misunderstood this
statement. 1t is not an insinuation
that the judge is studying up on his
physiology but merely goes to show
that the judges job is not all gravy
even though he does rock back and
forth in broad and easy chair dur
ing the hearing of the case.