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| - A decade earlier Frank had discovered that a senior partner in the top law firm owned by his father-in-law was illegally influencing members of the jury to win a case. When Frank threatened to expose the crime to authorities, the law partners reported to the police that Frank was the one guilty of jury tampering. Jailed, divorced by his wife and about to be disbarred, Frank retracted his threat to the partners and they in turn arranged for his release from prison.
- The Verdict is a 1982 courtroom drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet, based on a novel by Barry Reed and starring Paul Newman. Frank Galvin is a washed-up alcoholic attorney who hasn't won a case in years and who spends his time lying his ways into funerals. His friend, Mickey Morrissey, gets him a medical malpractice suit about a woman rendered comatose during surgery with a guaranteed large settlement. However, a visit to the girl deeply affects him, and at the meeting with Archdiocese of Boston to hammer out the settlement, he rejects the money, deciding that this is his last chance to save himself and resolves to fight it out. This, of course, displeases everyone, from the family to the judge, and his opponent in the trial is Ed Concannon, backed by a large an
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| abstract
| - A decade earlier Frank had discovered that a senior partner in the top law firm owned by his father-in-law was illegally influencing members of the jury to win a case. When Frank threatened to expose the crime to authorities, the law partners reported to the police that Frank was the one guilty of jury tampering. Jailed, divorced by his wife and about to be disbarred, Frank retracted his threat to the partners and they in turn arranged for his release from prison. Publicly disgraced, Frank took to alcohol and struggled to find clients. In the last two years he handled only four cases and lost them all. His former law professor, Mick, brings him an important and potentially very remunerative case of a women who suffered brain injury while undergoing childbirth and now lives in permanent coma like a vegetable. Evidence suggests that the well-known doctors who handled the case at a prestigious Boston hospital were guilty of negligence. The victim’s sister and her husband ask Frank to file suit for damages of $600,000, of which he stands to earn a third if he wins it. With Mick's aid, Frank arranges for another leading physician to testify as expert witness that the attending physicians committed criminal negligence in their handling of the patient. Frank gives up drinking and strikes up a relationship with a young, sympathetic woman named Laura. He feels his life is finally turning around after years of degradation and failure. Five days before trial, the hospital authorities call Frank and offer an out-of-court settlement for $210,000. He is sorely tempted to accept the money, which would give him a much needed success and substantial income, but he sees that the defendants are simply trying to buy him off for a cheap price. Out of higher principle, he refuses the money and decides to fight the case in court. The hospital and physicians engage the services of one of the top law firms headed by a ruthless lawyer who insists on victory regardless of the methods. That firm puts its senior partner and 12 other lawyers on the case against Frank and Mick. They arrange for articles in the local newspapers and a TV program extolling the virtues of both the hospital and these particular doctors. The judge himself, who has a reputation for siding with the establishment, urges Frank to accept the settlement and displays a strong bias in favor of the hospital and other law firm. Still Frank refuses to compromise. The day before the trial begins, Frank’s client is told by the opposing attorney that Frank refused the $210,000 and the husband is so furious that he punches Frank in public. Later that day Frank discovers that his expert witness has disappeared, obviously having been bribed by the defendants. Somehow the defendants seem to know every step Frank takes and are able to undermine all his efforts. The power of the establishment and the pressure it exerts becomes too much for Frank. He panics at the sudden reversal of fortunes and concludes that he has no chance of winning the case, so he calls the defense attorney and offers to accept their settlement offer. Knowing Frank’s case is now weak, they refuse and the case comes to trial. When Frank turns to Laura for sympathy, she abuses him for giving up even before the trial. Frank arranges a last minute replacement for his expert witness, but that physician lacks the necessary credentials and his testimony is discredited by the judge himself. The case is lost before the defense even begins its presentation. Desperate, Frank re-examines all the facts and rightly surmises that one obstetrics nurse present during the patient’s operation refused to testify because she is trying to protect the admitting nurse who had filled out the report when the patient came to the hospital. With great energy and resourcefulness, Frank tracks down the admittance nurse and discovers the truth before the next trial date. One of the physicians had failed to read the admittance report and, therefore, failed to note that the patient had eaten one hour before admittance. As a result, the doctor had administered an anesthetic to the patient that caused her to vomit into the oxygen mask, resulting in suffocation and brain damage. Afterwards the physician forced the admittance nurse to alter her report to state that the patient had eaten nine hours earlier instead of one hour. The same day, Mick discovers that Laura is secretly working for the opposing lawyers and is the source of the leaked information that had undermined Frank’s case. Laura, who by now has fully regretted her betrayal and become very fond of Frank, tries to confess, but finds no opportunity to speak with him. Meanwhile Mick alerts Frank to prevent him from telling Laura the admittance nurse. In a fury, Frank slaps Laura and then refuses to have any further contact with her. Back in court the defense presents a very strong case. In cross examination, Frank gets the physician to admit that if anesthesia had been given to a patient an hour after eating, it would constitute criminal negligence. He then calls the admittance nurse as a surprise witness along with a photocopy of the original report that shows the one hour had been altered to nine. Despite the effort of the judge to discredit the witness, the jury is fully convinced and decides to award Frank’s clients even more than the $600,000 they sued for. In the last scene, Laura desperately tries to speak with Frank on the phone to reconcile with him, but Frank refuses to pick up the phone despite a strong inclination to do so. A man who had fallen from grace and renounced values recovers them both through an intense struggle against incredible odds. Both his inherent goodness and his weakness are apparent throughout. His final act of manliness in refusing to take back the woman who had betrayed him express the inner sense of self-respect and self-restraint that were crucial for his resurrection.
- The Verdict is a 1982 courtroom drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet, based on a novel by Barry Reed and starring Paul Newman. Frank Galvin is a washed-up alcoholic attorney who hasn't won a case in years and who spends his time lying his ways into funerals. His friend, Mickey Morrissey, gets him a medical malpractice suit about a woman rendered comatose during surgery with a guaranteed large settlement. However, a visit to the girl deeply affects him, and at the meeting with Archdiocese of Boston to hammer out the settlement, he rejects the money, deciding that this is his last chance to save himself and resolves to fight it out. This, of course, displeases everyone, from the family to the judge, and his opponent in the trial is Ed Concannon, backed by a large and professional legal team. To make matters worse, no one seems to be able to tell him what actually happened during the surgery. Also along the way he finds a lover in a woman named Laura, a complex relationship that isn't made any easier by the trial.
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