The Truth

I admit it - I like legal fiction movies and TV shows. I don't know why - most of the time I have to keep from yelling you can't do that, or why don't you obect. But I watch them just the same.
Once in a while there is something in a movie that strikes me as perfect.

In the movie "A Civil Action" while the two attorneys are talkng in a hall way outside the courtroom waiting on the jury to come back the following conversation takes place:

Jerome Facher(Robert Durval): What's your take?
Jan Schlichtmann (John Travolta): They'll see the truth.
Jerome Facher: The truth? I thought we were talking about a court of law. Come on, you've been around long enough to know that a courtroom isn't a place to look for the truth.

The cold hard fact is truth is not normally a consideration in a trial. A trial is about winning. The jury will never hear all of the facts, will never know everything. Each attorney will try to limit what the other side can say and that s the way the system is designed. And to add to it, many legal experts believe a ury makes up its mind by the time opneing statements are finished but before the 1st witness is called.

I am not sure I believe that but I have had a trial that I knew I won on the first day of a four day trial as soon as I finished cross examining the plaintiff. My client honestly owed her some money, just not the millions she wanted. From the 1st day I could see the jury didn't like her and refused to accept anything her attorneys said.

At no time have I ever looked to find the "truth" in trial. I am not sure what the "truth" is.