EP 909- Is That A Dumb Question

Episode Notes

Transcript

Announcer:

Welcome to Heels in the Courtroom, where the trial lawyers of the Simon Law Firm break down what it takes to win in the courtroom and in life.

Elizabeth McNulty:

Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Heals in the Courtroom. I’m Elizabeth McNulty, and today I am joined by Liz Lenivy and Mary Simon.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

Hey, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth McNulty:

So today we’re going to talk about something that Liz and I have been discussing at length for the past couple of weeks, and it’s kind of an age old question that we’ve been pondering. And it’s a question about questions. So are there such thing as dumb questions or is that just a myth? So I think we have all heard there’s no such thing as a dumb question from probably the first day of school. It’s something that it seems like many teachers, professors kind of start the year with. And then when you start a job, it’s the first thing you hear when you’re being trained. You hear it all the time. And then you start to wonder as you get older, is that true? Is there not such a thing as a dumb question? And kind of to start this, we wanted to find out where that even originated from.

So I went to the trustee source of Wikipedia.

And the oldest thing it could find was a 1970 Dear Abbey column. So Dear Abby, for those of you who might be younger than me, because I remember reading the columns in the newspaper when it was printed on the Sunday edition, is an advice column that people could write into. And Dear Abby would provide lovely advice. I don’t know if it’s topical now, but this is from 1970, so it worked then. And in giving her advice, she said, “There is no such thing. It’s a stupid question if it’s sincere. Better to ask and risk appearing stupid than to continue on your ignorant way and make a stupid mistake.” Which I think is good advice and should be followed in some situations.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

So I’m clear though, the full quote is there is no such thing as a dumb question or a stupid question so long as it is sincere.

Elizabeth McNulty:

Sincere, yes. So

Elizabeth Lenivy:

There is an additional caveat to this phrase that we as a society have just lopped off.

Elizabeth McNulty:

Yeah. And it seems to be kind of a crucial part.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

Guys, I think the mystery’s been solved.

Elizabeth McNulty:

We could just end the recording now.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

Yeah. All right, bye guys.

Elizabeth McNulty:

This brings to mind a question, have you ever asked something and instantly regretted it?

Elizabeth Lenivy:

I’m sure, in fact, I know with 100% certainty that I have asked a question in a deposition, probably many depositions that I have instantly regretted. And then when I read the transcript back, I have to have that regret again. I have to live with this guilt and regret twice. And frankly, I think the only way to get through this job sometimes is to immediately put those moments out of your brain. You read it, you think about it in terms of the case, you wrap the case up, you never think about that dumb question you asked ever again. Because I mean, our jobs are so focused on asking people questions and frankly, asking people questions about subject matters that we don’t know a lot about or that we have done our very level best to educate ourselves on. And I’m going to pause right here and say, if you hear some weird thuds in the background, I think our upstairs neighbor is maybe doing construction.

So we’re very happy for them, I guess, but apologies if it’s throwing anything off. But anyway, our jobs require us to ask people questions who are experts in subject matter that we have done enough and tried really hard to educate ourselves on, but we’re never going to be at that level, especially in terms of medical malpractice. I mean, think about it. I can spin my wheels and drive myself silly trying to teach myself labor and delivery and how to read fetal monitoring strips and how to understand all of the medicine that goes behind delivering a baby or taking care of a newborn, but that’s never going to equal a physician who has had 30 years of experience, right? So at some point I’m probably asking dumb questions and I’m doing it with sincerity though. I’m doing it because I want to get the truth and I want to make sure I understand the information and that I’m not leaving any stone unturned because what I have found in this job too is you may ask a dumb question or two, and then that leads you down a road of some really good questions to some really important subject matter.

So I feel like as an attorney, as a litigator, you have to be ready and be willing to put yourself out there to ask seemingly dumb questions and to feel a little bit dumb. And I think the other important thing, and I’ve been talking about this with my husband too, is that I think to the best trial lawyers, the people who I think truly do a best job in front of the jury are those who are humble enough to know that they are not smarter than everyone who takes the stand. They are not the smartest person in the room. You can be the most prepared person in the room. You can feel like the person who has maybe worked the hardest in getting to that moment in the courtroom, but you should not walk in feeling like the smartest person in the room and acting like it because the jury is going to pick up on it.

I think it looks pretentious. I think it can look smarmy and juries are going to be turned off by it. And so I make the joke to my husband of like, “I think we got to be a little dumb sometimes.” I think jurors appreciate the honesty. So I’ve probably gotten off of the subject a little bit, but to your question of, have you ever asked a dumb question? Yeah, absolutely. I’ve asked dumb questions. I know I have. Will I be able to recite them for you right now? No. Those are buried so, so deep within my brain, just a box within a box buried underneath in a cave. It will never see the light of day again because I could not survive if I had to think about all of the dumb questions I ask.

Mary Simon:

Sitting here thinking about it, obviously I know I’ve asked dumb questions in my personal life, whatever. I know I’ve done it before, but it’s so funny because having a almost four year old, my brain goes in so many different directions with this. And I think of course they’re going to ask the most basic questions because they don’t know yet. It also makes me think, Liz, not only are we, is it a profession built around getting admissions through questions, but sometimes the questions we ask in a vacuum could seem really dumb, but it’s like an admission that’s so obvious. I’m having a hard time putting these into clean boxes of like, what qualifies a dumb question? Have I ever asked one? Why do I think that that was a dumb question versus when I ask it in the circumstance that I just explained in a deposition where you get at six eye rolls across the table, but you’re going to continue down your line of questioning.

So it’s interesting to think about that. And also when I’m just reflecting on, is there such a thing as dumb questions? And my immediate thought was yes. I do think about moments that I’ve had with, I have asked a question before to a more senior attorney and the response I’ve gotten is, how do you not know that yet? That probably still would happen, but it happened more in the first two years of practice, but it does make you think about who you want to go ask a question to before you do. And obviously you do your due diligence. Yes. But even having one moment like that early in your career, you are constantly thinking about what you’re going to ask someone before you do it. So it’s not flagged as that, but it’s a really interesting thought exercise because it can go so many different ways.

There are really hilarious, dumb questions. And then like Liz said in my head, I’m like, I can’t think of all the ones that I’ve asked because they’re buried and then they’re going to stay buried. But when we become cognizant of this concept, it’s fascinating to me just thinking about, I can’t think of a moment in time where I was like, “Oh, there are such thing as dumb questions.”

Elizabeth Lenivy:

It’s so interesting too, because it’s a phrase we’ve all heard since we were little and I know I heard it in school. I guarantee Mrs. Gaczowski, my kindergarten teacher, shout out. I guarantee. I guarantee she said, there’s no such thing as a bad question. I’m sure she didn’t say dumb or stupid. She would never. But I’m sure she said something along the lines of there’s no such thing as a bad question because for children, we want to encourage them to be curious and to think critically. And the only way to do that is to ask a lot of questions because like to your point, Mary, they’re figuring it out for the first time and that is completely understandable. I also though compare this to my personal upbringing because I think before I ever heard anyone say, “There’s no such thing as a bad question.” I know for a fact my father told me stupid questions get stupid answers and that is something I have lived by since I was a small child.

And what he was teaching me in that moment was that before you open your mouth in any context or situation, you need to think about what’s coming out. It’s not enough to just be a blind invitation to say anything and everything that comes inside of your brain,

Even if it’s something you don’t know, you need to be thinking about how other people are going to receive that question. And I think that that might get into really the heart of the matter, which is, is a question a bad question? Are there dumb questions? It all depends on the context and who the people in the conversation are. Between a four year old and her mother, correct, there’s no dumb questions. Between a first year associate and a partner, there might be some dumb questions. And I think, Elizabeth, you talked about at the beginning, the reason this topic came up was we were kind of talking about it’s the beginning of the summer. There’s probably people in law school who are starting their first jobs at a law firm or in a legal setting, or there’s going to be hopefully some people that pass the bar soon that are going to be starting their first job as lawyers and as new associates.

And I think it’s important for those people to think about the context that they are in which they are asking questions. Am I reciting that conversation correctly?

Elizabeth McNulty:

Yes. I think that’s how it arose just because I think the defining thing for not a dumb question, especially in a workplace setting, which is kind of where obviously this was focused is you have to prepare a bit with your questions if you’re going to go ask someone questions. They shouldn’t just be thoughtless. And I think sometimes the trap that first year associates or summer interns, clerks, whatever, fall into is they just think that asking a bunch of questions makes them seem intelligent and engaged. And certainly that could be the case, but you also really run the risk of asking some really silly questions that if you’re talking to a lawyer, they’re going to know right off the bat, you don’t know what you’re talking about. And if you’re talking to a nice lawyer, they’ll probably still engage with you. But if you’re talking to someone that doesn’t have the patience for you, you’re going to- Or the

Mary Simon:

Time or-

Elizabeth McNulty:

You’re going to get a response that’s kind of like, how do you not already know that? Or like you should go do some research. So if you’re someone starting a new job or like a law clerk, just make sure you put in the preparation before asking your questions because it’s a big tell if you’re asking a dumb question. We can tell and we don’t want that for you. When I was a law clerk on my very first day starting here at the firm, I went and Kevin Carney was giving me an assignment and he asked me to draft a petition. I had only learned the federal rules, so I had no idea what a petition was. And I don’t know if this was smart, it’s just kind of my personality. I took notes on what he wanted me to do, had no idea what he meant, but I wasn’t about to ask like, “What’s a petition?

You need me to get some signatures?” Totally. So I just went back in my office because I think if I’d asked them that, he would have just stared blankly at me and probably called Angela and said, “We need to find some new law clerks.This isn’t going to work.” So I think it’s good to be inquisitive, but you also need to do some work on your own in these certain scenarios. Obviously in depositions, there’s some foundation that we need to just figure out. So we’re going to ask some dumb questions and that’s okay. It’s part of it.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

Yeah. I tell people all the time, Google is free. If you’re not sure about something, Google it. Google will tell you. Now don’t trust the immediate AI generative answers because sometimes those are wrong, but you can take the initiative to try to find some information. And it tells me so much. And Elizabeth, I like what you said about, we’ll engage with … I think I engage with people. When they ask me a question, I’m going to be respectful and professional because I don’t remember about all of the dumb questions that I’ve asked over my life. And I’m sure someone has engaged in the same conversation with me and thought, “What is wrong with this girl?” But we can tell. And sometimes I can tell you’re just asking me questions for the sake of asking questions because you want to seem a certain … These are not questions insincerity.

But when someone comes to me and says, “I have a question about X, Y, Z, and here is what I have done to try to answer the question. And this is the information I have found, and this is the idea that I have. ” I am blown away by that. That level of action, it shows me that not only have you thought about the question, which is critical in this job, but you have also begun thinking about the solutions, which is the entire point of this job. We are solution finders. It is not enough to just constantly be going people. Now, obviously, this is what I advise for younger lawyers. Do a little bit of research. Do not spend 10 hours spinning your wheels about something, but just have a basic foundation that you can come into the partner or senior associate or whoever it is and just be ready and show them as well that you respect their time enough that you will use some of your own in trying to find the answer.

Elizabeth McNulty:

So it sounds like we’re all in agreement that there is such a thing as dumb or silly questions. So that leads me to the question, do you find that people are afraid to ask questions in legal settings like our clients for fear of sounding dumb or ignorant? Do you see that every day in your practice?

Mary Simon:

Yeah. A lot of times clients will, or any non-lawyer who’s asking you something about your job, that happens all the time. But I’ll say the same thing to someone else who’s in a different profession. I’m going to ask you this is probably a dumb question, but here it goes. Clients do that often, but I always tell clients, I have no expectation that anything I’m doing working on your case is something that you will understand. I recently talked to a client who I know has had experience in litigation before, and I prefaced my explanation to him on a couple of things. I want to give you a rundown of kind of what’s coming up, but I don’t want to tell you a bunch of stuff that you’ve already heard before. So if at any time I’m telling you something you already know, just cut me off and we’ll move to a different topic, but I do think that happens often.

It’s also, I’m curious too, do you think that the folks who are the highest ranked at a law firm or at a company or whatever have more leeway to ask dumb questions because they are not going to be challenged in that way? The only reason I say that is because I feel like the longer I’ve practiced, but maybe it’s a confidence thing, maybe it’s an actual knowledge thing. I have no idea, but I feel like I don’t have the same hesitation to ask a question as I did five years ago, but I don’t know if it’s just a, because I feel that I have more confidence and a basis of why I’d be asking something because today if someone told me, “How do you not already know that yet?” I’d have a response to them. Whereas a first or second, I’m like, “Oh, I don’t know.

I’m sorry.” Whereas today I’d be like, “Haven’t done it before.” Otherwise, I wouldn’t be asking the question. Right. You know what I mean? Stupid questions get stupid answers. Right.

Elizabeth McNulty:

My guess would be that the longer you’re in a profession, the more you realize that there’s always going to be a large universe of stuff you just can’t or don’t know. And so it’s okay to ask those questions, but I also think it’s just probably seniority kind of a thing because no one’s going to look at their boss and be like, “How do you not know that? ” That’s an insane thing to say. You’ve

Mary Simon:

Never done that before? Yeah, no.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

I think it’s twofold, or at least I think there’s two good answers in my brain. One is I just don’t care. You think it’s a dumb question? I don’t care. I have to ask it. Okay? Right. Think of whatever you want about me, but I just don’t care. Now, again, this comes with the caveat of everything we’ve already said about think about context and do research, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But you do reach a point where you’re like, “Could I spend an hour researching this or could I walk down the hall and talk to someone who I know has done this and spend 10 minutes in their office and be respectful of other people’s time, but also at the same time, you got to be respectful of your client’s time.” That’s particularly true if you’re billing your clients. So that’s something to think about that we have the privilege of not having to consider.

But the other thing too is the flip side of it is maybe you’re asking a dumb question or a bad question, but because you’ve been doing this so long and because maybe you look the way that you do and you’ve got the salt and pepper hair and you’ve got the wrinkles around your eyes that indicate you’ve lost a lot of sleep because you’ve been working so hard at this job for decades and decades, maybe you’ve kind of earned the privilege because you’ve put in the time and now you get to ask a dumb question and no one’s going to call you on it because you say it.

Clearly you’ve been doing this a long time and you say something with enough authority, people just go along with it. I mean, we’ve talked about this. The number of times I have walked into a courtroom knowing I am right, I have the law, I have cases, I have my arguments, they are sound, I have prepared and I make my arguments and I know they are good and I know I am right. And my opposing counsel stands up and they go, “Judge, I’ve been doing this job for 30 years, game over.” All of my stacks of paper and meticulously planned argument go out the door because Mr. So- and-so has been doing this longer than I’ve been alive. Great. So again, sometimes it does not matter what the question is, it matters whose mouth it is coming out of.

Mary Simon:

Yeah. I agree with that. I also am thinking about talking about the feedback you get if you ask a dumb question, when you ask a dumb question, how do y’all handle it? Because all of us have sat here and said, “We think we’re pretty nice in giving thoughtful responses.” I believe that folks who I respect and get feedback from, even if it is a dumb question in my head, I’m like, “I’m a little bit hesitant to ask this. I’ve done some research. I’ve come down with two avenues of how to approach this specific issue. I’m going to go ask someone knowing that this person has dealt with this issue a hundred times over, whatever.” To them, it would be valid in my brain for them to think it’s a dumb question, but I’m going to go ask the question. I think that some thoughtful responses that I’ve got from folks is, “What do you think?

” Not in an aggressive way, I bet all of us have gotten that here. My dad has done it to me

Plenty of times. “Well, let me ask you some follow-up questions. Have you thought about this? Have you thought about this? What does that tell you? “It’s almost like a thought exercise to put it back on the person asking questions. I don’t think I’ve ever received that in a way that felt insulting to me because it almost gave me more like, ” Oh, I actually could probably just think about those five questions and make a decision and feel kind of empowered to go do it. “But I’m curious when you get asked a question like that, what are your responses when you get asked a dumb question?

Elizabeth Lenivy:

When I get asked a dumb

Mary Simon:

Question or

Elizabeth Lenivy:

When I ask a potentially dumb question?

Mary Simon:

No, no, no. When you get asked them. So that’s a way that I like them being handled from my perspective because I’m like, ” Oh, that wasn’t as harsh as I thought it was going to be. And let me think this through a little bit more.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

“The right way to handle that is exactly what you just said, which is, ” Well, what do you think? “And I will say, I have been on the receiving end of where people just tell me the answer. And I appreciate that too. I went in, I asked the question, thank you for the answer. I really appreciate when people take the time to go through that exercise. A bit of Socratic method almost. I have also been on the receiving end of being told that’s a dumb question. I have wasted someone’s time and that did not feel so good. And I mean, not here. I’ll throw that out. It’s never been here, but it’s happened before and it doesn’t make me feel good. And what was the lesson I learned from that? Don’t go back to that person with any questions. Oh,

Mary Simon:

That’s

Elizabeth Lenivy:

True. I don’t expect them to help you. So I think the right thing to do though, if you have the time and if the question is asked in sincerity, is to engage in that kind of dialogue.

Elizabeth McNulty:

Yeah. I think that probably is the right thing to do. It brings me back to being a little kid, going to ask my dad for help with my homework. And he would do that, like ask a thousand questions and I would always be so frustrated by it because like, no, I just want the answer. Thank you.

Mary Simon:

I just need the answer.

Elizabeth McNulty:

That’s all. I don’t have time for this. But it is a good way to teach people. So I do have that to be appreciative of. So this brings me to a fun part of this exercise is what’s some of the worst or dumbest questions you’ve ever seen asked in a deposition or God forbid in a

Mary Simon:

Courtroom? Oh, this is fun. Do any come to mind for you right away, Liz?

Elizabeth Lenivy:

One. Well, two. I take that back.

Mary Simon:

Well, three.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

How long we got? Let’s make this a seven part series. So the one that immediately stands out, because I get this question every now and then at dinner parties or hanging out with friends, they want to know like, “Well, you’re a lawyer. Tell me a funny lawyer story.”

Mary Simon:

Sure.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

Okay. Well, let me do my little dance for you guys. And it was in a case involving some gynecologic procedures. And my client was an older woman and they had to go through her gynecologic history and they had sent a very young man to take the deposition. I mean, and he showed up with his binder full of questions

Mary Simon:

That

Elizabeth Lenivy:

Someone had, or maybe he prepared him. I don’t know who prepared him, but he had his outline ready and he got in there and he got a few questions in and I felt like he was kind of getting ready to maybe break free from the outline so much. And he was going through her history and we had just established that she had had a hysterectomy and then he asked her, “So did you have any more children after your hysterectomy?” Oh,

Mary Simon:

No.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

And she looked at me and goes, “Is this a trick question?” And I go, “You just got to answer it honestly.” And she goes, “No, I did not have any more children after my hysterectomy.” And here’s the thing, I don’t think he caught in that moment

Why it was so funny to us that he had asked that. And I think that’s an example of, if you’re going to go in on medical case, especially when you know the subject matter, maybe again, quick Google search. What is this procedure? What does it mean? The other question though that came to mind was I was actually a law clerk and it was one of the first depositions I had gotten to go in just to observe. And it was our client’s deposition and she had talked about how this particular incident that the defendant’s negligence had caused was causing her to have very serious memory problems. She had basically resulted in her being in a very extended coma and because of that, she had a lot of memory problems coming out of it.

And the defense attorney asks her, “Well, tell me something that you have trouble remembering.” And she goes, “You want me to remember what I forget?” And the lawyer that I was there shadowing immediately was, I think her objection was, “Oh, come on. ” And I was like, “Oh, that’s a real objection, right?” And I think that kind of bringing this back to what we do for … I know that obviously we probably are speaking more so to other plaintiff’s lawyers just because of what we do, but something that I learned when we think about what are appropriate or good questions, and sometimes there are bad and dumb questions, is if you were talking to someone who has gone through something horrific, whether it is a personal injury or the loss of a loved one, the best defense attorneys I know are the ones who ask those questions.

You got to ask the question, but you can ask the question with tact and care. And that is where I think there are really bad questions. So there was another example, and this one was, I was still in law school in this particular situation and it involved a burn victim. Someone had gotten horribly burned in some type of explosion. And the questions that the defendant’s lawyers were asking were frankly offensive. They were so bad. And I think the story goes, I was not a part of this conversation, this is all, I’m hearing it sort of back channel, was that it was a young defense lawyer really looking to cut his teeth on this big case and an older, more experienced defense lawyer pulled him out of the deposition and apparently gave him a bit of a lecture on, “You don’t need to be asking. You don’t need to be asking these questions right now.

You know better.” And I think that that is an example of sometimes the experience in this job will teach you how to handle those situations. And similarly, I was talking to someone else who was representing a mother who had lost her son that was, I guess he had some developmental disabilities and he had a lot of medical care. And they asked another family member, “Well, is the plaintiff, does she feel any relief now that her son is gone and she doesn’t have to take care of him?” And the family member had a great response back about what an awful question that was, but I think that that’s an example of, you can ask the questions you need to ask to establish whatever it is you need to establish for your client’s case, for your client’s defense, whatever, but ask it in a way with tact.

And I know you said funny stories and I feel like I’m not being funny right now, but I mean, that’s genuine advice of if you know you’re going to have to ask a tough question, draft it ahead of time and ask it in such a way that you are not being offensive or callous or cruel.

Mary Simon:

Yeah. And I also, I’ve had cases before with memory loss and I’m thinking about questions that have been asked like, “Why don’t you remember it? ” After it’s been established so many times that the impact or whatever caused a brain injury or something. The flip side of that, when we’re talking about questions of plaintiffs who have had just like absolute devastating loss, whether to themselves or in their own family, you can tell when there’s defense attorneys on the other side who don’t even go there. They know it could be a whole other episode on like the art of restraints On both sides, I think for all attorneys, I think that that’s a skill to have of knowing when to even ask it. We’ve all done it. We’ve all been in trial with a client and the other side will stand up and say, “I don’t have any questions.” Because what the hell are you going to ask that you actually really need to ask at this time to make it seem like the loss isn’t that bad or something?

Because when it comes down to a basic human decency level, there are dumb questions that you shouldn’t be asking. I was trying to remember the facts of this case, but the attorney kept asking questions after my client said that they were there and then had a whole series of follow-up questions about how they know. How would they know that information? How would they see that person? But I found myself in a position where my client just kept saying, “I was there.” So I was there. I was there and I saw it with my eyes. And the other attorney just kept saying, “But how do you know that this and this happened?” And I just remember my client just continually repeating, “I saw it with my eyes because I was there. I was at the scene.” And they’re like, “Okay, well, how would you know that this person made a phone call?” They’re like, “Because I saw them pick up their phone and do it.

” And at a certain point, I was just like, “I’m going to let it go because it’s not something that’s harming my client other than making them very frustrated, but it looks bad on the other side for them to keep asking this.

Elizabeth McNulty:

” Most of my stories are just more dumb offensive questions instead of dumb, funny questions, which is a kind of, as Liz was talking about, part of being on the plaintiff’s side, you can’t tell if it just comes out of ignorance or just mean spiritedness. The one I’m thinking of is the client had his jaw wired shut. That was part of his damages in the case. And he was from Mexico and the defense lawyer asked him if he ate a lot of tortillas. Oh my God. And the client just looked confused and was like, “No.” And she’s like, “Dude, what are you doing?” Oh my gosh. Why would you ask that? I understand we need to talk about the food she could eat while his jaw was wired shut, but asking a Mexican American if eats a lot of tortillas is just an absurd- Not a smart question.

Do on the record.

Mary Simon:

I have trust in the universe that that lawyer thinks about that question on a regular basis and that it follows him around.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

But there are some actually really funny examples of bad questions asked during trials or during depositions. And again, part of this, I recognize as someone who admits she has asked dumb questions. Sometimes it is because you can’t think of any other way to get the information out. Sometimes you are just thinking about so many different things. You’re not actually thinking about your question. You’re thinking about what you’re going to be doing five questions from now. You just got to get through it. You got to lay that foundation and move on, but it makes for very funny transcripts. So we thought maybe a nice lighthearted way to end the episode was to read some of these on our record. All right. So I’m going to throw the first one to you, Mary. You be the attorney. Elizabeth, if you’d be so kind as to be the witness, read a couple of these just so we can end the episode on a fun way.

Mary Simon:

Yeah, sure. I’m playing attorney role here. She had three children, right?

Elizabeth McNulty:

Yes.

Mary Simon:

And how many were boys?

Elizabeth McNulty:

None.

Mary Simon:

Were there any girls?

Elizabeth McNulty:

Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?

Mary Simon:

Okay. I would love to be in the courtroom at that. Wait, here’s another one. Let me do this one too. How was your first marriage terminated?

Elizabeth McNulty:

By death.

Mary Simon:

And by whose death was it terminated?

Elizabeth McNulty:

Take a guess.

Mary Simon:

And here’s another one. What happened then?

Elizabeth McNulty:

He told me, he says, “I have to kill you because you can identify me.

Mary Simon:

” So did he kill you?

Elizabeth McNulty:

No.

Mary Simon:

Okay. I feel a little bit better reading some of these. I feel a little bit better about my dumb questions.

Elizabeth Lenivy:

If you look at the one under the photo, I feel like that’s an example of what my dad used to always say. So the attorney asks, “Are you qualified to give a urine sample?” Witness?

Elizabeth McNulty:

Are you qualified to ask that question? Oh, those are great. Okay. So if you’re interested in reading some more dumb lawyer questions, just as Liz says, Google is free, so feel free to look these up because they’re pretty funny, honestly. And so with that, I hope you learned something. I think the biggest takeaway is don’t be afraid to ask questions, stay inquisitive, but please do your homework. Try to be prepared when asking those questions and take a beat and think through your question before asking it, because I think that that will set you up for success. But again, we don’t talk about this to freak everyone out and to stop asking questions. It’s not really the end goal here, but we just want everyone to ask better questions. So with that, thank you again for listening to another episode of Heels in the Courtroom. We drop episodes every other Wednesday, so feel free to subscribe wherever you find your podcasts.

And if you have any questions for us, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected], and we will see you in two weeks. Bye.

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