Father Knows Best
Member
Cosmoline said:If a civil case gets to trial and the judge isn't sleeping, no the plaintiff attorney is not going to be allowed to parade your irrelevant, unfairly prejudicial forum posts in front of the jury.
Cosmoline, I have to disagree with you. Are you an attorney? I am. I do civil trial work. It's been 90% of my career for the last 12 years. I'm licensed in three states (Michigan, Arizona and Tennessee) and have handled cases in state and federal courts around the country.
The Defendant's statements are almost always going to be admissible if they are potentially relevant to the issues. There is a huge exception to the hearsay rule for "admissions against interest." In a case where someone is being sued for wrongful death over the shooting of another person, the defendant's statements on the use of lethal force are almost certainly going to be deemed to be relevant as the defendant's mental state at the time of (and leading up to) the shooting will be at issue.
The bottom line is that you should never write anything that you wouldn't want to have to explain to a jury.