Final Speech

Is the final speech able to make a difference? The court has a poker face, until the very end it is not known what he will do in the case. Once it happened to me that the Court (The President-Rapporteur) apologised during my closing speech for interrupting me and asked me acerly, as if to strike with a shoe: “Mr Patron, do you not see a contradiction in what you are saying.” The worst part was that I didn’t see it. And I did not see what the Court sees. I began to question the General Court about what that contradiction was. Then the Court told me that in this. It was a penalty for cutting down trees, which the office imposed on the investor, but the trees were cut down by the general contractor. It seemed pointless to me that he was responsible for cutting down the trees, the one who had not seen them and did not know that someone else was cutting them down.

My final speech turned into a discussion with the Judge. After the closing speech, I waited outside the courtroom for a verdict with a group of trainees who had previously been present in the courtroom. A few of them came up to me and said, “No chance.” After the council, the General Court announced the verdict and …. took into account my complaint. Wouldn’t it be better if the General Court told the parties what it did not understand, what it did not see and why it believed the case was lost or won. After all, it should be about delivering a fair judgment, not a judgment based on misunderstandings.