Dream of: 07 October 1982 "Put in Issue"

A judge, who was also a law student, was seated facing us on the other side of the table. He was a tall, thin, black-haired fellow and was wearing a blue shirt. He seemed to be doing a rather good job. I did not see any jury.

I began shuffling through the pile of papers trying to figure out what the case was about. We only had a short time in which to prepare. The shortness of preparation-time was apparently planned to see how well we would do when pressed for time.

Brenda and Mike began delivering their case. When they spoke, they remained seated and they directed what they had to say to the judge. I half listened, half read while they spoke, in an attempt to find out just what the case was about.

Suddenly, they finished. It was our turn and it looked as if Bonnie was supposed to speak first. I turned and looked at her; she was thoroughly disoriented. She did not seem to understand yet what the case was about; she needed more time. I began trying to think about what to do; I quickly decided I should begin speaking so Bonnie would have more time.

I was feeling a bit apprehensive about the other team; they were good and I thought that beating them was going to be difficult. Nevertheless, we had a chance. The other team seemed confident and almost a little too smug.

I began. I knew by now that the case concerned the death of a woman in a nursing home. Bonnie and I were the plaintiffs representing the deceased woman; we were suing the nursing home for damages. I falteringly began going over some of the facts of the case. I was slow and I kept shuffling through the papers in front of me as I talked. One of the papers was a personal letter which I thought was relevant to the case, although I was unsure whether the letter had been written to or by the woman. I talked for a while, groping for words. The words "put in issue" suddenly took on new meaning to me and I realized how important they were in trial practice. I finally realized the essential point I wanted to put in issue was negligence; if I simply brought up negligence, it would then be put in issue. So, I simply said something like "we put negligence in issue." I thereby alleged that the nursing home's negligence had contributed to the plaintiff's death.

I finished and turned to Bonnie. I wanted to help her.

I had not yet mentioned a second major point—fraud—which also needed to be put in issue. As I looked again through the papers in front of me, I came across about a dozen orange tracts. Apparently, the tracts had been sent out by the nursing home in an effort to solicit new patients. I glanced over one; it seemed to describe a pyramid scheme. The idea seemed to be that if a person were to send people to the nursing home, the person would be rewarded. I said to Bonnie, "I've brought up the negligence aspect, now you can bring up the fraud."

I thought it would work out well that way, but then I realized Bonnie was in a panic and was afraid to speak. I tried to calm her; I began whispering to her. She was worried she did not know enough to say because she had not had enough time to prepare. I told her it did not matter because the lack of time was part of the challenge. No one had had much time to prepare and the trial was designed to test how we would handle the problem with only a minimum amount of time. I told her she only needed to begin talking, to put fraud in issue, and to not worry about anything. I was beginning to notice some impatience from the other team.

Suddenly, Bonnie became angry with me. She seemed to think that I was responsible for the situation and that she was simply not going to take part. I knew she was actually just afraid to speak in front of everyone. I tried my best to ease her fear and I pointed out that this was only a little practice affair and that it would not matter much if she made mistakes. I told her it would be much better to make a mistake now than later when we were in practice court.

By now she was not only afraid, but angry. She blamed me for the situation; she thought I was the only one who wanted her to speak. She said that she did not have to speak and that she was not going to. I began looking over my shoulder at some other law students who were standing around; maybe I could find someone else to quickly take Bonnie's place.

Suddenly, Bonnie jumped up and was clearly intending to leave. A fellow who reminded me of Steve Gibson (a law student) walked up; for a minute I thought maybe he could take Bonnie's place. Instead, he forcefully but gently made Bonnie sit back down. He was clearly concerned about her. Someone else also seemed ready to intervene to compel her to stay; I hoped she would see that I was not the only one who was trying to force her to speak.

She seemed all tied up inside, but she seemed calmer after she sat down. I perceived that the judge was trying to make it as easy for her as possible. He stood up and began talking. The other team was looking rather confident. The judge said we had already raised the issues of negligence and fraud (apparently I had somehow mentioned fraud in my statement), and he told the other team they were going to have a difficult time rebutting that. He seemed to be trying to give Bonnie a little time to pull herself together. She was still upset, but she did seem calmer. There was still a good chance she would be able to go on.

The judge then said we had to follow some court rules. I did not have the first rule but the second one was, "We're good friends here."

The third one began, "You can't say in life ..."