Above, you’ll find the cover of Captain Marvel #39, published way, way back in 1975.  It’s a part of the storyline “The Trial of The Watcher,” which the website Comicvine tells us involved “Uatu the Watcher [being] put on trial among his race for his interference in several Earth affairs.” The cover proclaims that the issue will offer “The Fate of the Watcher . . . and the Deadly Verdict!”  That does not sound promising for Uatu, does it?

Mental Floss offers us “11 of the Most-Watched Television Trials.”  You can probably guess most of them.

This review of My Cousin Vinny by AtomicSam links our prior coverage of the 20th anniversary of the film.

Well, Trevor Fehrman at Film Racket is arguing that “Attack of the Clones is a Film of Incalculable Historical Significance.”  Oh, my.

Finally, comedian Ricky Gervais offers his thoughts on product warning labels. Not a fan of them, we think, based on his comment.  For good measure, be certain to read some of the comments to his tweet to get an idea of the public perception of certain warning labels.

Sometimes, Plaintiffs’ attorneys complain about the amount of time defense counsel spend deposing their retained liability expert. Of course they do.

Accordingly, we here at Abnormal Use offer these suggestions on how they can ensure that the depositions do not require so much time to conduct.

Produce a report. Obviously, in federal court, expert reports are required.  However, in some state courts, reports are not mandated.  Accordingly, defense counsel may appear at the deposition without a detailed knowledge of the nature and basis of the expert’s opinion.  If defense counsel must spend the first portion of the deposition ascertaining the expert’s opinions, and then later exploring them in detail, then the process is slowed.  If the defense lawyer knows beforehand what the opinions are or may be, then he or she can better prepare and conduct the exam more efficiently.  However, without a report, the defense counsel must both identify and confirm the expert’s opinion before establishing the basis for said opinions.

Produce the expert’s file material well in advance of the deposition.  If the expert appears at the deposition with a host of unproduced file materials, then a portion of the exam must be dedicated to identifying and explaining the purpose of those materials.  Even production of the expert’s file before the deposition may not save time.  For example, if the Plaintiffs’ attorney emails file materials to defense counsel at 5:00 PM the day before the deposition, then one cannot expect that much time will be saved at the deposition itself.

Show up on time to the deposition. Sure, we as lawyers are sometimes informal at depositions, and most of the time, a collegiality permeates the deposition room despite the antagonistic nature of the litigation process.  However, if the Plaintiffs’ lawyer appears 15 minutes late for the deposition, it makes complaints about the length of the deposition somewhat disingenuous.

Determine how to address the lunch break. If time is a concern, then perhaps a brief lunch period can be scheduled or food can be ordered out and eaten as the deposition progresses.  Obviously, there must be sufficient time for the court reporter to take a break and eat his or her own lunch, but if a 30 minute lunch break is suggested, and Plaintiffs’ counsel requests an hour instead, then complaints of the length of the deposition may be inappropriate.

Finally, prepare the expert for the deposition process. A number of experts are in the business of being experts, and they enjoy sparring with attorneys and avoiding answering even the most direct questions.  Most defense counsel will be undeterred by such tactics and continue to ask questions to confirm and secure the full basis of the stated opinions.  However, the types of games that some experts play in attempting to avoid questions can only prolong the process.  Defense counsel is entitled to know both the opinion and their basis, and if the testifying expert wishes to delay offering that information at the deposition, then it will only take longer to procure that information from the expert during the exam.

Make certain that the expert has a mastery of his or her own file. If an expert is only prepared to spout off his or her own opinions, but cannot point to the specific documents or evidence supporting that opinion, then the deposition will last longer than expected.  The expert has known for days, possibly weeks, that he or she is to be deposed, and answering straightforward questions such as “what is the basis of that opinion?” with something along the lines of “I read that in some other depositions” or “that is in one of the books upon which I relied” are not sufficient answers.

Soccer fans are loud.  Really loud.  A rowdy bunch in general, fanatics of teams all over the world have been known to engage in all sorts of bad-boy behavior.  They throw things from the stands, things like flares and burning mopeds that could seriously hurt someone on the field or down below.  They murder fans of other teams, just because.  And they engage in riots that end up with people dead, and others sentenced to die.  Heck, there’s even a Wikipedia page devoted to “football hooliganism.”

My point is, soccer fans are not, as a rule, shrinking violets.

And yet, there was one thing that caused soccer fans all over the world to beg for mercy.  To lunge for their remotes in a frantic search for the mute button or, for those [un]lucky enough to be at games during the South Africa World Cup in 2010 in person, to wish for earmuffs.

The Vuvuzela.

Looks harmless enough, but these things are brutal.  They’re loud.  They make your ears bleed.  And, thank the heavens, they were eventually banned by UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations.

Not to be outdone, Brazil has apparently come up with its answer to the Vuvuzela, another [slightly less] annoying noisemaker which Brazil claims to be part of its cultural heritage.  They are called Caxirolas.  Please don’t ask me to pronounce it.  Time Magazine recently published an article about them, which is how we learned about them.  This guy was nice enough to model them:

Designed to sound like rain, we think that the sound, once magnified by all of the fans, will be more like the sound of millions of cicadas swarming the stadium than a calm afternoon shower.

But then, we’re talking about soccer fans.  They never opt for “calm.”