re the state of justice in apr desire wright edu demon desire wright edu sez a judge denied gm s new trial motion even though gm says it has two new witnesses that said the occupant of the truck was dead from the impact not from the fire thoughts it s kind of scary when you realize that judges are going to start denying new trials even when new evidence that contradicts the facts that led to the previous ruling appear there s this minor thing called interest of finality repose what it means is that parties aren t dragged into court over and over again because the losing side discovers some new evidence i don t know about you brett but i suspect gm had the resources to find just about as many expert and fact witnesses as it wanted before the trial started letting them re open the case now is practically an invitation to every civil litigant on earth to keep an ace in the hole in case the verdict goes against him btw in federal criminal cases rule does permit a motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence if made within years of the verdict emphasis mine if you re trying to make a backhanded point about criminal justice in a discussion that has little to do with criminal trials as the estimable david brock did in his amusing wsj piece last week save your breath or has the judge decided that the new witnesses are not to be believed shouldn t that be up to a jury yup which is why they shoulda been brought around the first time through and what about members of the previous jury parading through the talk shows proclaiming their obvious bias against gm shouldn t that be enough for a judge to through out the old verdict and call for a new trial whatever happened to jurors having to be objective unless there s some reason to believe that this supposed bias predated the trial as opposed to being a product of it and that gm was unfairly prevented from discovering it by venireman concealment or otherwise why should gm be allowed to complain moral always choose the right sort of parents before you start in to be rough george ade mark eckenwiler eck panix com cmcl panix eck
