One Man's Journey Into Law

James Hunt Garcia

• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781639038381
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Legal Profession
• Index: Law

This book contains memoirs of one man's journey into law over a thirty-year period. It is intended to help new lawyers, students, the public in general, and those interested in becoming a lawyer. The journey will include an insight into the practice of law from one man's beginning to retirement. This will include actual cases and analyses of various courts, judges, lawyers, clients, and others.

The Road to Litigation

The year was 1971. I was a brand-new lawyer and had no idea what I was getting into, yet I was very anxious to try a case before a jury. I was offered a job by a local firm. He was a CPA and had a good business practice. He knew my background in the insurance industry and thought he might build a personal injury business. I had no trial experience. Law school doesn’t teach you how to voir dire a jury. Evidence class teaches you the basics on objections, admissible evidence, certain rules but nothing that would prepare you for court. I was given a case to try, and I could hardly wait. On the day of trial, I had no help but managed to accept the jury as constituted. I have no idea how I did this. Fortunately, the defense attorney was a young attorney, and it may have been his first case. The case was a personal injury auto accident case. My client was a young man who came to court unkempt in disheveled clothes and looked like he was fresh from sleeping in an alley way. The defendant was a silver-haired grandmother dressed impeccably, and I knew that I was in big trouble. I had previously prepared my boss’s client at the office, and he appeared articulate and convincing with his story as how the accident occurred. There were no witnesses. It was a case of he said, she said. They were both pulling onto the freeway when the plaintiff claimed the defendant ran into him. His testimony was not believable. Why? Her testimony was, and we lost the case. I was relieved and not sorry that I lost. I learned from this and had the thrill of trying my first jury trial. I felt at home but knew I had a lot to learn. I then began asking questions about every aspect of trial. I read jury verdicts. I talked to attorneys. When I became law clerk, I prepared answers to interrogatories. I attended depositions.

I had an opportunity to be cocounsel on a wrongful death case with one of Los Angeles’s best trial lawyers. The case involved a young Hispanic mother who worked for an affluent couple who resided in Tarzana, California. She couldn’t speak English. On a very hot summer day, she asked the owner if she could use the pool on her lunch break. She was given permission, and she was later found dead by the gardener. The owner did not inquire if she knew how to swim. She did not know how. She used a floating rubber lounge and apparently fell asleep. The lounge drifted to the deep area of the pool, and it was determined that she panicked and rolled off the lounge and into the deep water. Her footprints were on the bottom. It was determined that she panicked, went to the bottom of the pool, pushed to the surface, and grabbed the rope that broke. I was able to learn a great deal from this widely known plaintiff’s attorney in trial preparation, introduction of evidence, and trial. The judge kept calling counsel to the bench for a sidebar continuously to record each objection and the reason for the objection. It was apparent that the judge was interfering with the trial. My cocounsel asked the defendant if he was insured. This was grounds for a mistrial. The judge went ballistic. You can never ask a defendant if he was insured as it will prejudice the defendant’s case and may cause the jury to find for the plaintiff if the jury knew the insurance company would pay damages instead of the defendant. The judge did not hold the attorney for the plaintiff at fault as it was an honest mistake, or was it? Trial lawyers are a rare breed. There are the good, the bad, and the ugly. Judges expect proper decorum, dress, and observance of total respect for the court. There are judges, however, that are the good, the bad, and the ugly.

As I gained more experience and felt more comfortable with clients and the court system, I developed more confidence. I then delved into divorce and criminal law while I worked for the business lawyer.

My boss had a fancy suite located in a prestigious building on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. His office was on a floor near the top. My office was a very small area down below that reminded me of space that was good used to store maintenance equipment. It had barely enough room for a secretarial desk and a very small private office with a door. My desk was a metal orange and black desk with room on top for a broken lamp. I didn’t care. I was a lawyer. I had a secretary, and my boss sent clients down to me to handle on my own with no interference from him. I loved every minute of it. I was a genuine lawyer, and people came to me with their troubles. My introduction to divorce came quickly. My first case was a young, black model. She brought a male assistant whose briefcase had the number 69 written on it. He was very peculiar. During the ’70s, divorce was relatively simple to process. The forms were standard. The only basis was irreconcilable differences. The problem is always determining the nature and extent of each other’s community and separate property rights—in addition, child and spousal support. Divorce law can be extremely difficult. Families are torn apart. There can be violence, threats, and death. Attorneys have been shot and killed. There has been tragedy in child dependency hearings. An attorney has to be one part priest, one part advocate good, and use 100 percent common sense. Winning a divorce case is not the answer. It is all right to serve your client well, but you must look at both sides and reach a final determination that will not destroy either side. I have seen too many families left with nothing but despair. No food, no rent money, children divided, drugs, alcohol, etc., etc. (Why then do you want to be a divorce lawyer? If you feel that you can make a difference then do it.)

Getting back to my divorce case, my client said she married her husband in Las Vegas, Nevada. They have no children. She was earning high wages, and she had accumulated material wealth. She said her husband accomplished nothing. We filed for divorce, and we were assigned to Department 2 in Los Angeles Superior Court. From there, you are assigned to one of the many departments. We waited in the hallway outside our assigned department. My client pointed out her husband, a rather large man, who was holding his divorce papers in his hand and smacking them in the other. I knew I was in trouble when he motioned for me to talk to him. He said “Sir, are you aware that my wife is a man?” I said no, she never mentioned it, and I did not believe him. He said to ask her. I did, and she and her 69 briefcase assistant began laughing. I said, “If your husband should bring this up in court, the judge will order a short-arm inspection. He will order his bailiff to take you into a back room and report the truth.”

I had no idea that a judge would do this, but I took a chance she would fall for it. She did, and she was a man. She said she intended to have an operation but hadn’t scheduled one. I advised the court to take the matter off calendar and told her goodbye and good luck. I never saw her again. Department 2 is a huge courtroom. It is the calendar court that assigns the cases to the various courts. I have seen many celebrities in divorce court. One was Lee Marvin in the famous palimony case. While California is a community property state, attorney Marvin Michelson devised a way to get unmarried long-time lovers to pay up for their services. I went into the restroom one morning, and Redd Fox, the comedian, came in and stood by the stall next to me. He began singing, “Everything she has is mine. She’s a son of a bitch.” We all laughed. I had many cases of every kind and description in divorce court, and with each one, I learned more. I had a young policewoman come into my office, wanting a divorce. She showed me pictures that her husband took of them in pornographic poses. Her husband threatened to send them to the police department if she filed for divorce. He did just that, and it was very embarrassing. I filed restraining orders against her husband and introduced the photos. The judge issued the orders and held her husband in contempt. He served ten days in the county jail. He did it again, and the second time, the judge sentenced him to thirty days. We never heard from him again.

I had many cases the first year of practice. I decided to enter the realm of criminal along with personal injury and divorce. Personal injury was easy because of my experience in the insurance industry prior to becoming a lawyer. I was thoroughly knowledgeable in all aspects of personal injury law. I either settled or gave authority to my adjusters and law firms in every conceivable type of injury case including death. A good way to earn personal injury is to work as an insurance bodily injury adjuster for an insurance company. Many attorneys that I know of started there. Five of my adjusters that I supervised became good lawyers. Once upon a time, a major insurance company actually paid tuition and books for their adjusters. Another method is to go to work for an insurance defense firm or a plaintiff’s personal injury firm. Working for a law firm will teach you all of the aspects of discovery. Those are interrogatories, depositions, request for admissions, investigation, evidence, and so on. Eventually, you will get your feet wet in trial. At first, this can be very frightening. There are some judges who will tolerate a newcomer’s mistakes. There are some who will not and will embarrass a new lawyer in court. I have a great respect for many of the judges that I tried cases before, but there were some who were arrogant, abusive, and incompetent. More will be said about this as you read on.

Criminal law is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the law. It is mysterious in every aspect. I will go into this aspect of the law in detail, emphasizing the many cases of a peculiar nature that I either tried or represented criminal defendants. Before I do, I want to finish up my first year working for a lawyer.

The most important case that I had was just before I quit my job with the firm and went out on my own. One afternoon, I was sitting at my desk engrossed in something when all of a sudden, a man appeared in my doorway. I looked up, and there was a very large, black man who filled up the entire doorway. He was bald-headed. He had a kind face, but his size was very intimidating. I said, “May I help you?”

He said in a low tone and language from Abraham Lincoln’s time, “Is you Mistuh Garcia?”

I said, “Yes, I am.”

He said, “Mistuh Garcia, you has been chosen to represent me.”

I said, “Who sent you?”

He said “It doesn’t matter. You were chosen.”

I replied, “What can I do for you?”

He began to tell his story that not only seemed incredible then but even to this day. He sat down. And for the next few hours, I sat in awe. He began. He is a merchant seaman; it was in the seventies. He worked for a steamship company out of New York that transported aviation gas to the Philippines during the Vietnam War. He said that he was on a ship heading for the Philippines when an incident occurred. He was told by the bosun’s mate to use a deck brush machine to sand the rails of the ship. This machine had wire bristles in the rotator that was primarily used for the deck. However, he was told to pick it up and use it on the rails. He went on to say that he was the only black Muslim on board. The other black men were not. He said he was married and had a child. He and his wife wanted more children. He used his Muslim name —— X. He said he used the machine. And in the use, the wire bristles came lose and penetrated his stomach, legs, and groin area. He was bleeding and left his post ten minutes early and went to a bathroom (Head) to wash himself. At that time, the boatswain entered the bathroom and threatened Mr. X. The bosun’s mate said, “If you don’t get back on the machine, I will put you on it bell to bell.” Mr. X then said that he was a National Maritime Union deck delegate. He called a meeting that night and then filed a complaint with the chief mate. Chief mate told Mr. X that he had better get back on the machine or else. After the next day, the same thing happened to Mr. X. He was afraid that the injury from the wire bristle in the groin area would make him impotent and that he could not have any more children. He filed a second report. The chief mate then reported him to the captain. The captain was a white person from Little Rock, Arkansas. When Mr. X was taken to the captain’s quarters, the captain asked him why he was causing a problem. The captain said that under maritime law, three strikes and you lose your union card. He said, “If you do not obey my orders, you may never see land again.” The captain then opened a drawer and showed Mr. X a gun. He didn’t take it out. He just pointed at it. The point was made. Mr. X told the other black men what happened. They told him to be careful. They felt that he was going to disappear. The rumor was that he would never see Subic Bay in the Philippines where the ship was going to make port. They were due to arrive in Subic Bay shortly, so they hid Mr. X. When the ship docked, they dressed Mr. X up in a disguise and got him off the ship. He immediately hitched a ride to Manila, and when he got there, he was arrested. The ship had notified authorities to be on the lookout for Mr. X. He was now a deserter in the time of war. The Manila police put him in prison without cause other than he was an American deserter. He said the experience in prison was horrible. There were spiders, snakes, murderers, and children—a life he could not believe. He found that as a merchant seaman, he had the right to use union chits or funds against his pay to secure a private room in a hotel. He had an armed guard take him to a hotel where he tried to get help. Each day, he wrote everyone, including the president of the United States. He tried to reach the US Consulate but without success. He was then told he was to return to prison. The guard ordered him back to prison at gunpoint. As they walked back to prison, the guard stopped to talk to a friend. Mr. X took off, running as fast as he could, and ran directly to the consulate’s office. There he was given asylum as a US citizen.

As a merchant seaman, he was entitled to be sent back to America to stand trial as a deserter. The company had to pay for it. When he arrived in America, he was tried in San Diego and acquitted. I was never contacted by anyone involved in the San Diego trial. I still don’t know what happened there. After telling me the story, he said, “Mistuh Garcia, I want yo to sue the owners for what happened to me.”

I asked him if he received medical treatment for injuries. He said he spent $100 to be examined. He was not impotent. He had no psychiatric or other possible claims for damages other than the intentional tort of assault with a deadly weapon.

He said, “Mistuh Garcia, I’m studying to be a captain. I need yo help.”

I told him, “I knew nothing about admiralty law. This is in federal court. I have never been in federal court other than admission.”

He said, “You is the chosen one.”

I said I would think about it and to call me. He did, and I said I would. At the time, my boss had a young law clerk working for him. He was a student at USC. He had no experience in admiralty law. Together, we did some research and put together a lawsuit against the shipping company. We contacted our necessary witnesses and filed the lawsuit. When we served the defendant, I received a phone call from the defendant’s attorney. His firm was in Long Beach, California, in a tall building with offices that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. The firm was an international admiralty firm with offices in Tokyo, London, New York, etc., etc. The attorney was a partner in the firm. He was one of the most prestigious admiralty lawyers in America. He invited me to come to his office. When I arrived and went up to his office, I almost fainted. The office was incredible. It had samurai swords on the wall, many sailing, and oriental artifacts all over. The furniture and decor were ultraexpensive. There was a large telescope positioned at a window looking out to sea. I felt sick to my stomach. The defense attorney appeared and shook my hand, welcoming me. He was tall, gray-haired, and wearing a suit that had to cost more than my Pinto sedan. I was wearing a blue polyester suit that I bought wholesale for what he paid in tips. I was sick. I thought to myself, How in the world am I ever going to get out of this?

We had a nice chat. He told me that I had no cause of action and that my client was a deserter and disobeyed his duties on the ship. He offered nothing. He was very nice. I felt like a fool. Here I was, a year in practice, and I was going to try a case in admiralty against a major company with a superb attorney and international defense firm for the defense.

We went to court in Los Angeles. We drew a judge that had a reputation for being nasty. I had my witnesses. The defense had theirs, and the trial began. Thank God there was a podium to hold onto, or I would have passed out without it. As I presented my case, my law clerk and a witness got excited and started talking loudly. The judge had some sort of foot ailment and had hobbled up to the bench using a cane. He was not in a good mood from the beginning. The judge stopped my examination of the witness and started pounding his cane on the bench. He yelled at my law clerk and said to behave himself and be quiet in the courtroom. I explained that he was my law cler...