by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Three things have yet to happen this year in Major League Baseball. No one has tossed a no-hitter or a perfect game and a triple play has yet to be executed.
A couple of weeks ago, the Marks Gray law firm completed the legal world’s version of the triple play by winning three defense cases in one week. The week could have been even better.
“We were ready for a fourth trial set for Melbourne, but we got a call on Monday telling us it had been postponed,” said Bill Corley, a partner in the firm.
To put the feat in perspective from a legal standpoint, in Corley’s 23 years with Marks Gray, he’s never heard of the firm winning three defense trials in a week.
“It’s unheard of in this day and age for a firm to even try a case,” explained Corley. “It’s a huge undertaking and can be dangerous. Most firms don’t go to trial more than three or four times in a year. In my almost 25 years, I have never heard of it. Most firms couldn’t field three trial teams.”
The trials were the week of June 6 and were held in Jacksonville, Gainesville and Lake City. The firm represented a doctor in a medical malpractice case, a restaurant in a slip-and-fall and an individual in a false arrest case. John Sarber was the lead attorney in Jacksonville and Victor Halbach was the lead attorney in Lake City. Both of those trials were scheduled for three days and wrapped up in about a day and half. With two wins in two trials, the pressure to make it a clean sweep fell on Jeptha Barbour.
“We got the final verdict about 3 o’clock on Friday,” said Ed Birk, an attorney with the firm. “Jeptha was in Gainesville all week and I’m not sure he knew the other two verdicts. We were all anxious, but we knew it was out of our hands. We were thinking it would be great to have three in a row. Jep has the Midas touch, so we knew if anybody could pull out the third win, he could.”
The three verdicts also put senior partner Jim Rinaman’s lungs to work. Rinaman blows a trumpet for the whole office to hear whenever the firm wins a trial. Three wins, three blasts.
Rinaman said he couldn’t remember the last time the firm won three trials in a week, but conceded it has probably happened several times over a year’s span for two reasons. One, the firm has been around since 1899. Two, trials were much more commonplace 20, 30 years ago. According to Corley and Birk, mediation isn’t just the legal flavor of the day, it’s used almost exclusively to settle cases and — in circuit cases for under $15,000 — it’s mandatory according to a Florida law.
“The state of Florida is No. 1in the nation in mediation,” said Corley. “It saves the client money. Also, if you settle the case before it goes to trial, the client doesn’t have to relive some of the emotions” and the situation that caused the trial in the first place.
These days about 80 percent of all cases end up in mediation. Another percentage of them get dropped. Still another percentage end up at the Supreme Court level — the top of the trial case pyramid. What’s left are trials that go to court and to a verdict. Corley said just about everyone appreciates cases that get settled in mediation.
“The judges love them. They are good for the taxpayers and they are good for the clients,” said Corley. “They save time and money.”