A Surviving Facts Blog
In 2025, I’ve had two views of our legal system. One completed earlier this year after a period of back and forth. The other occurred last week- that’s why you haven’t heard from me.
My husband and I were sued by a food delivery person who claimed something happened on our property. This happened in 2021, during Covid. Why so long? The case wasn’t filed until a month before the statute of limitations expired, and the judicial system moves slowly. Another complication also delayed us: the plaintiff’s attorney refused to settle. Over 4 years later, we were finally in court. Our attorneys selected the jury, the judge cleared motions, and the case began.
Before I explain the court happenings, a few details. In 2021, during Covid lockdown, a delivery person left food at my door. They had rung the door bell, and since it was lockdown, we assumed the person had rung the bell and left.
We were distracted that night because our very old beagle was unusually sluggish and- a huge “tell” for beagles- unhungry. Anyone who has raised beagles knows they will chew through wooden cabinets or magically levitate to bizarre heights to get food. Food is their drive. With this distraction, I sent my husband to the door. When he opened it to get the food- you know, reach out and grab it before the germs get you approach- our elderly boxer squeezed outside. Immediately, my husband called the dog’s name- so I ran to the door.
The delivery person was in the driveway. Our boxer, dragging his decrepit back legs, went to the person and lifted up to put his arms around the person’s waist. My husband, one of my daughters and I were all there and witnessed this happen. Besides being shocked that our dog had gotten out, we also were bewildered by what he was doing.
Boxers are bred to “hug.” Think about boxers in the ring. They embrace one another at times, hugging with their boxing gloves, perhaps throwing some back punches in the process. That’s what boxers were bred to do with bulls hundreds of years ago. The need for bulls is no longer there, but breeding runs deep in dogs. Boxers still “hug.”
Our boxer had never attacked, bitten or jumped on anyone, and certainly not strangers. We had trained him, so he was used to sitting obediently rather than running and jumping. One time, he had gotten out of the yard and ran to the front door and sat and waited until we noticed and let him in. I’m not sure what happened that day in 2021. Perhaps he knew our beagle would die later that night. Perhaps he knew his own death would come a few months later after his back legs had become unusable. He was a sweet and goofy 95 pounds.
Sweet and goofy aren’t always obvious with a large dog. When he embraced the person, I ran over and pulled him into the house. I said, “he’s a sweet, good dog, big, I know, but good nonetheless.” After putting the dog away, I checked in. “Are you alright?” The person said they were okay and pulled up the shirt to show a bruise. Even then, in the midst of an emergency, I thought, “a bruise can’t form that fast.”
Later that evening, we called the restaurant to check on the person. We were told the person was shaken but fine. We said, “oh thank goodness, let us know if anything is needed.” This was followed by rushing our 14-year-old beagle to the emergency vet, which informed us her heart was failing, her spleen was enlarged, compressing her lungs, and the end was here. We held her while the sedation seeped into her system and she slept, forever.
I had hoped this awful night would fade away, but I know liability well enough. I worried about what would come- and I was right to do so. A few days later, Animal Control called. The person had reported my dog. AC would need to do a house visit with my boxer. We had to quarantine him for 2 weeks.
The visit with Animal Control was uneventful. My boxer sat quietly when she arrived, slobbered a lot and slept. The officer gave me documentation. The delivery person had gone to urgent care the next morning and the doctor had taken pictures. The pictures showed a small bruise similar to the one I had seen the night of the incident. No teeth marks, no scratches. Whew! No damage. Three months later, our boxer would join our beagle on Rainbow Bridge.
Two and a half years later, my husband and I learned we were being sued for a “dog bite.” The plaintiff wanted half a million dollars. You read that right. This began our 2-year journey through New Jersey’s civil law system.
New Jersey is clear on dogs. If an owner’s dog harms someone, the owner is strictly liable for injuries or damages. I never questioned this. I knew my dog had “jumped” on this person, hugged them around the waist and likely scared them. I was responsible for this. He did not bite them. He had never bitten anyone. The delivery person claimed, however, that he had, thereby heightening the damage level.
In cases like these, one’s homeowner’s insurance policy steps in. The insurance company hires a lawyer who works your case. This area of law is called insurance defense, an area I know because several family members have practiced in this area in other states for decades. I had hoped the claims would lessen over time and we would settle at a reasonable level.
I was wrong.
Over the next two years, our case would escalate. The plaintiff’s attorney “wanted his day in court” and subpoenaed not only my husband and myself but our daughters, both then younger than 21, for depositions. One of my daughters was in her room and saw nothing.
We had very little interaction with our attorney during this time. He rarely contacted us, told us we didn’t need to be involved and downplayed the entire event. Not until the actual trial did I realize he had certified injury photos different from the ones the doctor had taken and had disregarded much of my input. Contrary to my attorney’s assertion, the case did not settle, and the plaintiff gained more and more zeal for an enormous reward. A few months before the trial, our attorney retired- a shock to us- and a new attorney stepped in.
Finally- after many delays and many motions- in 2025, our trial began. The opening statements told me what this would be: a bid for a huge payout with very little evidence. The plaintiff’s attorney claimed we would deny that the incident happened, that we were “clever people, cleverer than most” and mean. His client had been horribly damaged by this incident- to the point that the person would need hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation. My attorney noted this was a case about damages. We didn’t deny something had happened; the jury would need to decide what damages were appropriate.
Here are the facts of the case:
The plaintiff had no claims of physical injury, had only attended one urgent care appointment, had no medical bills and no medical report. In other words, the plaintiff had no proof of injury.
The plaintiff hired the attorney in early 2023. Only after this did the plaintiff seek therapeutic support. However, the therapy notes did not constitute expert medical advice and could not be positioned as such or submitted into evidence.
The plaintiff attended only 2 therapy appointments- one after hiring the attorney and one right before trial. And yet, a therapist diagnosed the person with severe PTSD. The therapist considered no other life events in his diagnosis. The plaintiff had been bitten by a dog a decade earlier and had been in several car accidents resulting in serious injury. Moreover, the plaintiff had experienced multiple life traumas before, during and after immigrating to the U.S. According to the therapist, none of these had any effect on the plaintiff.
The plaintiff had no physical evidence. The plaintiff’s attorney pulled out clothing “similar” to what the person was wearing, minimizing that these weren’t the actual clothes. The plaintiff’s attorney also had pictures. I expected these picture to be the ones Animal Control had given me. Imagine my surprise, then, when much more serious photos were submitted.
As soon as I saw these photos, I wrote my attorney a note: THESE AREN’T THE PHOTOS. At break, she told me that our previous attorney had allowed these photos to be submitted. These photos were taken by the plaintiff’s granddaughter, had no time stamp and were not verified by medical authority. Why would these photos- which I had never seen- be certified instead of the ones from the doctor and Animal Control? Memory is faulty. However, I am a diligent notetaker- as I’ve told you in previous blogs. I knew what the plaintiff was wearing at the time. I had seen the real photos from the doctor. Yet, I couldn’t do anything.
The plaintiff had no claim of lost income or wages, inability to work or anything else. In other words- no monetary impact was included.
An unfortunate nuance to this trial: Our delivery person was Asian. The plaintiff’s attorney- not my own, who also happened to have Asian heritage- involved race. This was about the Asian immigrant versus the privileged Americans.
Almost the entire trial, the plaintiff’s attorney had a picture of our house on a screen facing the jury. The message was clear: these people can afford to pay, so pay up. He told a hardship story of his client succeeding against “horrible Americans” who had made his client no longer trust the Americans once thought good. After realizing I am a genuine and likable person, he honed in on my husband who is as no nonsense New Jersey as they come. My husband’s face gave the victim nightmares and prevented sleep. This dog bite situation was more damaging than the other one because of my husband’s meanness and lack of care. The plaintiff performed admirably, crying on stand (using an interpreter) without a single real tear. The plaintiff’s attorney was so cocky he rejected a settlement offer during trial. He was convinced the jury would come back with an enormous award.
I am not exaggerating. The plaintiff’s entire justification was based on an “unlikeable” American who happened to be my husband. The plaintiff’s attorney even told the jury they “could feel sorry for me because she [meaning me] has to live with him.” Of course, he never asked what we had done to help the plaintiff. My attorney didn’t either, so the jury never heard we are good people with a record of helping those in need or that we had asked after the plaintiff’s welfare. She focused on facts. She trusted the jury would see the faulty logic. My husband didn’t help by being very New Jersey on the stand: GFY all the way!
I haven’t mentioned one other fact: the plaintiff’s attorney had never done a trial before. He had practiced in other areas. This meant he knew little about trial terminology or procedure- which led to numerous objections and consultations with the judge while the jury was escorted from the room. This fecklessness led to the trial lasting much longer than expected.
The jury began to deliberate at the end of day five. They only had 15 minutes that day and couldn’t stay late. Two of the jurors said they couldn’t come back the next day, risking a mistrial. The judge begged for them to come back the next day. They did. The next morning, the jury deliberated for almost an hour and had a verdict.
Would you like to guess what it was?
The jury of “peers” determined without evidence that my dog had bitten the plaintiff. I almost audibly gasped. The damages, however, were small. The plaintiff’s attorney got his days in court, but not his enormous award. The plaintiff got a five figure verdict much below the settlement offer he had refused during trial.
This is our court system today. While our new attorney was diligent and worked hard to recover from the poor, disengaged, decisions of the previous attorney- he was just waiting to retire- she was stuck with questionable evidence, exaggerated claims and the negligence of her predecessor. It was a win for the defense. The insurance had feared a large sympathy award. That didn’t happen.
The plaintiff should have gotten nothing, or very little. The jury, however, didn’t use the hoped for logic. Tired from going over by several days, they decided drama over facts. This was balanced by the low award, thankfully, though I suspect they thought it was significant. Even the judge said the jury gave more than he thought they’d get.
This was a waste of our judicial system. Want to know why homeowner’s insurance is so high? Here are reasons. Useless lawsuits crowd the courts. The plaintiff’s attorney was nearly incompetent; our first attorney made mistakes that cost the insurance company money.
I’m not advocating for big insurance. The entire insurance system is fraudulent. But so is the belief that the legal system can be used even when claims are dubious. The polarization currently in our country played out in our own trial. As a grandchild of immigrants and a supporter of immigration (this hasn’t changed my mind), I was saddened to see the “big, bad white man” argument put before the jury (the jury was mostly white, by the way). Classism also was interwoven through the trial- our admittedly large home a portrait of ease and privilege rather than the hardships we’ve overcome to get where we are. (I’m not denying white privilege, so don’t go there.) These are easy arguments. They are emotional tropes fiddled before a jury like the “Devil Came Down to Georgia.”
I left the courthouse sad, and relieved about the conclusion. I felt used. I was appalled by the treatment of my husband. I was wearied by incompetence. I was sick of the persistent conflict and lack of trust we live in today. I also left the courthouse with the newest version of Covid. I’m not sure which outcome was worse. They both show how broken we are.
I would love to hear from you, even if, especially if, you disagree. Perhaps we can bring back the American tradition of debate.
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