Corporations will settle rather than face weeping mothers on the witness stand.

Evidence

Cheeseman realized now that almost any jury would probably find his client guilty of contaminating the city wells, although he emphatically did not believe that such low levels of TCE had caused any harm. Yet he could imagine Schlichtmann calling the Woburn mothers to the witness stand. He could see them weeping, just as he’d seen that young woman weep on the witness stand fifteen years ago, when he’d been a law student. More than ever, it looked as if this case was becoming the sort of public relations nightmare that every big company feared. Cheeseman had no trouble imagining a huge verdict—tens of millions of dollars—against his client. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 698

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the trial lawyer’s cost-benefit calculation is really a bet on which story a jury will believe — sympathy and jury theater, not liability, drive corporate settlement decisions.