Alright, welcome back. (Narrator: The judge, or in some courtrooms the clerk, explains ground rules in words that are easy to understand.) Let me give you a little bit of information about how the trials are conducted so you know what to expect. I’m going to be hearing evidence from two sides of the case, and I’ll probably be hearing information and facts that contradict one another. So it’s very important for you to understand what the rules are, and how I need to proceed so that I can get the kind of information I have to have in order to make a decision.

When I call your case, I want you to come up to counsel table and bring everything and everyone that you need for your trial: all of your witnesses, documents, exhibits. Don’t leave anything behind. Step up to counsel table and bring it all with you. The way the trial will proceed essentially is that I will be asking a lot of questions. I’ll ask questions from both sides. I will give you a sense of what it is I need to know because eventually, I’m going to have to make a decision in your case. The most important thing that I ask you is that you please do not interrupt each other. I promise you that I will listen to both sides; I’ll hear what you have to say, I’ll give you a chance to respond to anything that is said. But it’s critical for me to be able to get information that I don’t have people arguing or talking over one another. I can’t hear and I can’t understand when that happens.

Try to listen to my questions and answer them concisely and briefly if that’s possible. My questions will give you a clue as to what it is I need to know, and if you tell me a long drawn out story, you may not get to tell me the important things that I do have to hear about your case. So try to be concise and try to pay attention to what my questions are. As you can see, there are a lot of people in the courtroom, and we have a lot of trials to conduct today. The average trial takes about ten minutes so you want to use that time wisely. You may have things that you want to say, but if they don’t have anything to do with the issues in the case, then it’s best for you not to tell me those things.

And I want to tell you how the trial will end. I’ll be rendering a judgment, but I do that in one of two ways: I might simply rule from the bench – I may tell you that I’m going to render a judgment now and tell you what side wins, and if there’s money involved, I’ll tell you how much money. That’s the way they do it on People’s Court and that’s what everybody is used to seeing. Of course, on TV, they have to give an answer from the bench. I don’t always do that. I usually do, but I might take your case under submission. If I take it under submission that means that I’m going to spend a little more time on it. I may have to do some legal research; I may have to look at the exhibits a little more closely, maybe consult some experts to get an answer to help me decide your case. If I say your case is taken under submission, then that means that you go home. You’re done for today here, and I’ll send you a decision in the mail, and you’ll get it in the next two or three days.

OK. Now what I want to do now is I will read the cases in the order that I will call them. And the reason for you to listen to this list is you’ll know where you are on the calendar. That way if you need to use the restroom or make a phone call, you’ll know if you have enough time to do that. So I’m going call the cases in the following order: The first case will be Tomas vs. Long; then General Appliance vs. Ellsworth; Lavell Westfall vs. McAdams; Johnson vs. Gonzales; and A&E Building vs. Larson. So I’ll begin now calling Tomas vs. Long. Will be parties please step forward.