Question of the Week
What’s the Best Hypothetical You’ve Heard or Used?
Posted Mar 6, 2008, 12:24 pm CDT
By Molly McDonough
If you’re arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court and Justice Steven Breyer clears his throat, be prepared for a “bizarre” and mind-bending hypothetical.
That’s because hypotheticals, Breyer says, cut to the heart of what’s bothering him about a case.
''The point is to try to focus on a matter that is worrying me,'' Breyer says. ''Sometimes it's easier to do that with an example.''
We’ve claimed pet oysters and “tomato children” among our favorite Breyer-theticals.
But this made us wonder …
What’s the best hypothetical you’ve heard in law school or law practice?
Answer in the comments below.
Read last week's question and answers about lawyers using Macs or PCs.
Our Favorite Answer From Last Week:
Posted by John A. Davidson: “If I had my druthers I’d like to have Xerox Globalview. Its no longer available but everything worked together. Having used the product since it was Star. I hated to see it go. I suspect that the Mac is more Star like then PCs. Alas, I’ve learned the value of being main stream.”
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Comments
Posted by Jim Crockett - 2 months, 1 week, 2 days, 18 hours, 38 minutes ago
This hypothetical question posed in a deposition of a scientific expert: “Assume a man. Like you, but not you. Same background. Same training. Same education. Same Facts . But not you. Would he reach the same conclusion as you?”
Posted by John W. Tulac - 2 months, 1 week, 2 days, 17 hours, 53 minutes ago
Said during a deposition without a break for a long time:
“If I were a bathroom, where would I be?”
It was determined not to be hypothetical.
Posted by C. Taylor - 2 months, 5 days, 15 hours, 8 minutes ago
I was speaking to an elderly man whose caregiver had me visit because he wanted a living will. While discussing it, it was not clear to me what he really wanted one in the document so I asked, “Suppose you are in a coma from which doctors have said it is likely that you will not awake or, if against the odds you were to awake, you would be so severly brain damaged that you would not be able to recognize your surroundings or the people around you, or care for yourself. If in that condition you had a heart attack, would you want your heart to be restarted so that you could to continue living in that coma?”
I had expected that the client would answer that he would not want his heart restarted and we could discuss his response for other, less extreme, medical circumstances. Instead,the client answered that he would want his heart restarted. That ended the discussion because I took that to mean that he wanted all reasonable medical care in all circumstances, at a minimum, and that a living will was not what he needed.
Posted by Richard J. Brickwedde - 1 month, 4 weeks, 1 day, 3 hours, 47 minutes ago
I was representing students at a major university who were denied the right to vote because they were students. I had the election commissioner on the witness stand who offered the opinion with regard to all 19 cases we were trying that day he could not answer any question as to what the students answers to specified questions in a board of elections questionaire were that were the basis for denying the students the right to vote answering only that it was the totality of the answers, but he would not answer which answers added up to the totality and the judge would not make him be more specific. At that point I posed the following hypothetical question: Assume a judge actually lives with his wife in an adjoining county from which he could not run for election in this county for judge. Assume that the judge maintains a voiting residence at his son’s apartment in this county, should that judge be allowed to register to vote in this county? The hypothetical question was vehemently objected to by the County Attorney and after a significant scowl at me by the judge, the objection was sustained. At the end of the day, the judge ruled in my clients’ favor in all nineteen cases. You see the judge, who I knew well, fit the description of my hypothetical. When the county under political pressure appealed four of the 19 cases, the appellate court affirmed and awarded four sets of court costs. I then applied before that same judge for court costs in all 19 cases which the judge awarded saying he would abuse his discretion if he did not award court costs. Another judge before whom I had tried 13 cases in one day awarded court costs in those cases. The students signed over to me their interest in the court costs and suddenly what had been several days of pro bono work became a $5000.00 pay day. More importantly, the county stopped denying students the right to vote.