Lawyers Share Their Most Epic “I Rest My Case” Moments
A court of law is a very serious place, where everything one says and does really does matter.
That’s why when someone in court does something incredibly smart—or incredibly stupid for that matter—its impact is even more incredible than it would normally be. Here are 42 stories, from lawyers and others involved, about the most epic “
I Rest My Case” moments ever to go down in a courtroom.
42. What a Heel!
In criminal court one morning, the accused wore a pair of very unique custom made red cowboy boots... that were stolen from the house he was accused of robbing. Yes, he wore them. To court. To plead not guilty. The prosecutor was laughing.
41. Making Paperwork Exciting
I watched a judge question a person in small claims court about a variety of things having to do with the overall lack documentation or evidence to support his claim.
At the end, he proceeded to rant for a full five minutes about how this plaintiff had wasted everyone's time, one by one ticking off the failures, and then told him that he had better hope he never appears in this courtroom again or he’d be held in contempt.
The entire room was spellbound. It was better than any TV show.
40. Telling It Like It Is
Fraud trial. Prosecution gets right to the point.
Third question in to the defendant: “So you have no properties, no identifiable source of income, no inheritance, and, as far as I’m aware, have not won the lottery, yet you have foreign bank accounts with £x million and a Ferrari.
It must simply be a coincidence that my client has an accounting black hole pretty much exactly equal to those riches.”
The defendant pretty much gave up on the spot.
39. Getting Into Icy Territory
I once got out of a noise violation ticket. I was driving around and had the music in my car up pretty loud. A cop pulls me over and gives me a ticket for the noise violation.
I go to court about it. My defense was, "If the ice cream man can drive around blaring that creepy music, I can listen to my radio." The judge tried hard to keep a straight face and I got out of the ticket.
