Yesterday was a very long day. Woke up from my alarm, never a good thing, to participate in a legal hearing. We started at 6:30 am, and it took nearly a half an hour to get the proceedings started because of challenges with the internet and technology for one of the witnesses and the judge. The next 2 1/2 hours was spent listening to the first witness, which mattered for me, because their testimony had pertinence to mine. I was the expert witness. We got a 5 minute break. Then came my testimony.
The first objection had to do with whether my attorney could even call me as an expert. The case had been going on for 7 months, and I was being introduced as an expert on the day of the hearing. Actually, not being privy to the case prior to this weekend, and not really knowing the legalities of this issue, I was wondering myself, but I was allowed to testify. Then came the voir dire. That was fun. The attorney who hired me spent time qualifying me in three areas of expertise. The judge got tired and a little perturbed after the second, wondering why he needed to go onto the third (which she ultimately concluded was implied by the first two). My attorney didn't seem to take the hints that the judge gave very well. Of course, the opposing counsel kept objecting to my being an expert, but, of course, I was.
My attorney then questioned me. I did most of the talking, except when there were objections. With an internet hearing, you really need to just stop talking after an objection and wait until the judge rules before answering a question. My testimony went on for a couple of hours. Then we took another 5 minute break. Now came the cross examination. That's always hard. As I said in yesterday's blog, the lawyer was just doing his job. Still, getting cross examined is stressful, though hopefully, I'll chill more in the future. Two more hours and we were done. 7 hours of trial testimony, sitting in front of a computer. I then had other work to do, or rather, I chose to do other work. I spoke to a reporter, as is my daily custom. I worked on emails and other items and ended up speaking with the opposing attorney and the person who'd hired me to testify. Oh yes, I participated in a webinar that I volunteered to help with at the last minute.
I finished the day by working on a very detailed grant proposal. By the time I went to bed, it was 11 pm. Too much, again.
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