Live Blogging The Trial: Day 2

• Things move a lot faster than I had imagined. Questioning that I had thought would take an hour took 10 minutes.
• Cross examination is much easier than direct. You can plan out cross question by question. Every question on direct, to a friendly witness, comes with the threat that your witness will say something stupid.
• And if your client messes up, the judge will blame you. And that will mean the jury will blame you, so you're screwed.
• After being so invested in our version of the facts, its jarring to hear the other lawyer ask questions. A case is like a novel with two authors who can't stand each other.
• Some lawyers make eye contact with the jurors, but that's just weird to me.
• I questioned a minor witness today. I did the got to do the whole walk up to the witness with a piece of paper and say "I'm showing you what's been marked as Exhibit blah blah blah." It felt a lot more stupid than I thought it would.
• One witness with a thick accent said that he was a "master baker" today. Three times. Hehehehe.
• Our trial strategy has slimmed dramatically in two days. People we thought we needed are now off our witness list. It's interesting to see how, after years of work, a case actually presents at trial.
• We're off tomorrow, back to court on Monday. We're expecting to rest on Monday. We may be able to close on Tuesday.