Rahul Ravipudi

As Thomas Jefferson said, “Ignorance of the law excuses no one.” That saying holds especially true for trial lawyers. Only in a jury trial are the rules set and is a lawyer free to argue the meaning of those rules to a jury and how it applies to reaching a verdict. The precise wording of the laws that the jury will apply to your case can be the difference between winning and losing. The way you argue the law to a jury has the potential to empower the jury or leave them floundering. To put this all into context, I will use Greener v. Del Mar Jiu-Jitsu Club as an example where pre-trial arguments on the law determined the law to be read to a jury which led to a $46 million verdict which led to a Court of Appeal published opinion affirming the law applied and is now a fully enforceable and collected judgment of over $56 million.