#FunFact: I've been an expert witness in 2 civil cases. The second time, I was originally supposed to testify the 1st day fo the trial but kept being rescheduled; I finally testified on the 5th day...but I had to sit in the courtroom for ~8 hours each day...at $150/hour.
https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1328772064027824132
The case involved both sides being clueless in different ways. A web developer working as a "volunteer deputy" at the Macomb County Sheriff's Dept. developed & maintained an elaborate website for them for free for 3 yrs...then demanded to be paid for his work, including back pay.
The plaintiff (the web developer) claimed that he was owed $300,000. He & his expert witnesses went on & on about how incredibly impressive/sophisticated the code was; all the nifty database tools he had implemented; etc etc.
I explained in my testimony that NONE OF THAT WAS REMOTELY RELEVANT...because not only was there no contract, the plaintiff had openly admitted that he had never asked for a dime for working on the site for the first 3 years.
If you offer to paint my ceiling for free, and I say "um...sure", it doesn't matter if you're the greatest painter in the world and you make my ceiling look like the Sistine Chapel...if I never agreed to pay you anything, either in writing or even verbally, I don't owe you squat.
HOWEVER...the Macomb County Sheriff's Dept. also screwed up by tacitly accepting the plaintiff's *unofficial* website as their *official* website, to the point of slapping the domain name on their squad cars, business cards, pamphlets, etc etc.
The domain name THEY DIDN'T OWN.
The domain name THEY DIDN'T OWN.
That's right: They never bothered to secure the domain itself *or* the hosting of the site, which meant he tried to blackmail them into paying up.
Which led to them bursting into his apartment & impounding his computer equpiment.
It got kind of weird after that.
Which led to them bursting into his apartment & impounding his computer equpiment.
It got kind of weird after that.
...and here's a follow-up article.
In the end, it was a draw: The Sheriff's Dept. didn't have to pay anything to the plaintiff, but they also dropped the charges.
Neither article scratches the surface of how stupid the whole thing was.
macombdaily.com/sports/hackel-…
In the end, it was a draw: The Sheriff's Dept. didn't have to pay anything to the plaintiff, but they also dropped the charges.
Neither article scratches the surface of how stupid the whole thing was.
macombdaily.com/sports/hackel-…
In the end, the Macomb County Sheriff's Dept. got their domain & website back under their ownership; the web developer didn't get a dime; and I got paid upwards of $10K (expert witnesses also get paid for their time explaining details to the lawyers to help prep the case).
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