Conferences, Trial, Judgment, and Post-Trial Motions Flashcards
A defendant charged with driving while intoxicated pleaded not guilty and insisted on a trial. Right before the trial began, he fired his attorney and decided to defend himself. At one point during opening arguments, the defendant began to act like a cat, meowing and chasing an imaginary squirrel out of the courtroom.
If no one else raises the issue of the defendant’s competency to stand trial, what is the responsibility of the trial judge here?
The judge must raise the issue of competency. If it appears to the judge that D might be incompetent, the judge has a constitutional obligation to conduct further inquiry and determine whether D is incompetent. If D is tried and convicted but it later appears that he was incompetent to stand trial, the judge’s failure to raise the issue or to request a determination of competency does not constitute a waiver of the competency issue. If the trial judge observes D acting in such a way that may indicate he is incompetent to stand trial (e.g., meowing, chasing imaginary squirrels), she should conduct further inquiry to determine the competency.
A patient properly sued her doctor in federal court for medical malpractice. At trial, the doctor’s attorney called four well-known experts in the field who uniformly agreed that the doctor acted within the normal standard of care in treating the patient. The patient’s attorney called only one young and inexperienced expert who opined that the doctor did not act within the normal standard of care; however, he contradicted himself on the stand and could not answer certain simple questions. During the trial, no motions were made by the doctor’s attorney. Surprisingly, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the patient, and the doctor’s attorney filed a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law 22 days after the judgment was entered.
Will the court grant the motion?
The court should not grant the motion. A judgment notwithstanding the verdict (“JNOV”) is now called a renewed motion for a judgment as a matter of law. To be valid, the party making the renewed motion must have moved for judgment as a matter of law at some time during the trial. Here, the doctor never moved for a judgment as a matter of law during the trial. Therefore, his motion for a renewed judgment as a matter of law will be denied. A renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law must be filed no later than 28 days after the judgment is entered, not 21 days.
