Do you have any further info on Edwards cashing in on his son's death? I'd like to hear more.
But the case remembered as his biggest win came in 1997 and involved a 5-year-old girl who was injured by a swimming-pool drain. The drain cover was off and the girl was trapped by a suction pump with enough force to extract her intestines. The manufacturer argued that if the cover had been installed correctly, the accident would not have happened.
Edwards countered the company should have provided better warning labels. "Some of the covers say nothing," he said during his summation. "If that continues, it's not a question of whether there's going to be another child hurt. It's just a question of when."
Later, he pulled a newspaper out of his jacket and started to read.
"There was a wonderful, wonderful thing written this past spring. . . . It involved the death of a young boy who shouldn't have died, and what he wrote was this: `We have to gather around this family not because we understand what they're going through, but because -- but because they have to know we share their pain. Our feelings -- our terrible, terrible feelings prove that we really all are part of the same family. Their loss was our loss. Their child was our child.' "
What Edwards did not tell the jury, although some lawyers in the audience knew, was that the piece referred to his own son, Wade, who had been killed in a 1996 car accident at age 16.
When the jury came back with the $23 million verdict, 10 of the 12 jurors were crying, recalled the judge who presided at the trial.
To those who had worked with Edwards for years, the result was familiar. So was the familiar air of empathy.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/09/15/edwardss_career_tied_to_jury_award_debate/
Having trouble finding it...I know I read it the day before yesterday. Should have filed it and didn't.
He filed the personal injury suit after his son's death, but it was for another client! Apologies!
Anyhow, here's the article...found it on the Fox News site. This one's been formatted differently, and therefore may be a corrected version : http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,124771,00.html This link should open in a new window.
Now I'm really running late and gotta go. Sorry I was wrong about that.