BOBBY: Why?

LINDSAY: Well, you're doing the witnesses, I'll have more time to ..

BOBBY: That's not what you meant.

LINDSAY: Sorry?

BOBBY: No, you said you should do it, like you'd be better, not like you'd have more time to prepare.

LINDSAY: No, I didn't mean it like that...

BOBBY: Yes, you did.

LINDSAY: No, I didn't.

BOBBY: Lindsay, I know your little inflections. I know that when you said that you meant you'd be more qualified to do the closing. Now, you can either tell me why you think you're more qualified or not, and if you don't, I'm going to have to take that as a lie. Are you a liar?

LINDSAY: That was really good. You're just such a clever lawyer. So good, it's hard to imagine that I could believe that I'm more qualified to do the closing. But I am.

JACOBS: They tell me it's because of our popularity, because of the cuisine, because everybody in the city wants to eat there. That was the nature of the piece and that's why I gave them full access to do the piece.

BOBBY: And what happened?

JACOBS: Instead of doing a positive feature, as they promised, they ambushed me with this... this big story... of bugs.

BOBBY: Bugs?

JACOBS: Bugs in the kitchen, bugs on the floor. They condemned my restaurant as unsanitary. It's the lead story on the news. My restaurant is closed. My reputation is destroyed. By those liars.

BOBBY: Mr Jacobs, had they not represented to you that this would be a positive news story, would you have granted the interview and let the cameras in?

JACOBS: Of course not. Their ticket to admission was a lie.

BOBBY: Thank you.

WIELAND: Do you deny that they discovered bugs?

JACOBS: Any restaurant has bugs. You got food, you get bugs. It's not like we serve them.

WIELAND: And if I'm a patron, sitting in your restaurant and ask if you have bugs, is that the answer you'd give?

JACOBS: I haven't been asked that question in twenty years, and if you were in my restaurant, sir, you wouldn't ask it. You'd only be thinking about how good the food is.

MRS JACOBS: You could be more humble, for God's sakes.

JACOBS: It could be false. Humility isn't something I do.

REBECCA: I have to finish this payroll crap, which I was supposed to have finished by the first of the year, which I would have finished but for a few lujacks dumped on me, with the best of intentions.

ELLENOR: Doesn't Lucy take care of all this stuff now?

REBECCA: Do we really want Lucy to know how much we all make?

LUCY: I heard that.

ELLENOR: Well, how much money do we all make? I'm a partner. I get access to the books now, remember?

REBECCA: I have to run that by Bobby.

ELLENOR: Rebecca, I'm a partner. Of course I can see what people are making in my partnership.

REBECCA: Okay. That's salary, plus partnership draw, doesn't include benefits or insurance.

ELLENOR: Is that right?

REBECCA: Yeah, why?

ELLENOR: Lindsay makes twice my salary?

REBECCA: Well, Ellenor, she brings in a lot of business, her percentage should be...

ELLENOR: Twice?

MS TYLER: Miss Gamble? I'm Sylvie Tyler. It was my cat who was killed.

HELEN: Oh, I'm terribly sorry. Please.

MS TYLER: I was curious, you don't plan to call me as a witness?

HELEN: Well, there's not going to be a trial. The defendant's pleading guilty.

MS TYLER: I see. So he'll go to jail?

HELEN: No, he'll probably be put on probation.

MS TYLER: What does that mean?

HELEN: That... He'll be on probation. Probably for a year.

MS TYLER: So, nothing will happen to him? I don't mean to sound like a doddering old loon, Miss Gamble, but I was widowed thirteen years ago. For the past eleven years Candy, that was her name, Candy. She's been my dearest friend. The boy knew that. He was a neighbour. He knew uh... It's not so bad to murder somebody's cat.

MICHAEL SAWYER: Instead of balsamic vinegar and paprika, we found these little guys. Or I should say, these big guys. And they were everywhere. Wondering what gives that clam chowder that little extra tang? Well, it just might be his sister.

BOBBY: After this aired, business went down?

JACOBS JNR: It died. Our gross went from seventy thousand a week to twenty-three. After two months, we had to close our doors.

BOBBY: Had you made any other changes? The menu, the chef... anything else that could possibly account for your sudden plunge in popularity?

JACOBS JNR: There were no changes in personnel or substance. It was that broadcast. It destroyed us.

WIELAND: You are the manager?

JACOBS JNR: I am.

WIELAND: As well as the son of the chef?

JACOBS JNR: It's a family business.

WIELAND: Yes. And you don't actually deny the allegations made in that broadcast, do you?

JACOBS JNR: I certainly dispute the charge that our corn chowder gets its flavour from a cockroach.

WIELAND: But the substance of that broadcast was that the place was bug infested and neither you, nor your father, take issue of that, and here you are suing a news company...

BOBBY AND LINDSAY: Objection.

JACOBS: What's going on? What is this directed verdict?

BOBBY: They're basically arguing that we haven't made a case and they shouldn't even be forced to put on a defence.

HELEN: I want time.

BILLY: Excuse me?

HELEN: I'll give you a year, six months suspended, six served.

BILLY: Ha ha ha.

HELEN: Best offer, Billy.

BILLY: Best offer? Last night we had a deal. You were going to spend the day in seaweed.

HELEN: I changed my mind.

BILLY: Helen, it was a cat.

HELEN: I met the owner. When I said probation, I had trouble looking her in the eye.

BILLY: I'm giving you a guilty. At trial you could lose and then you'll really...

HELEN: Billy, six months served or no deal.

BILLY: He starts college in the fall. I'm not about to agree to six months.

HELEN: Then we go to trial.

BILLY: It was a cat.

EUGENE: Two hundred and forty-two thousand?

ELLENOR: Am I overreacting? I mean, I know she brings in business, but to be making twice what we do?

EUGENE: Well, the partnership agreement is pretty clear. The formula is..

ELLENOR: Yes, the formula favours who brings in the business, but when we vote on new business, and Lindsay getting one vote and Bobby getting two, plus the tie breaker, with only three other voting partners the two of them control...

EUGENE: Ellenor...

ELLENOR: They sleep together, Eugene. Who are we kidding? She makes twice what we make.

EUGENE: You forget that we became partners because of her power play. It went to our benefit...

ELLENOR: You're forgetting that it was a power play. Look at these numbers... Numbers are numbers. They are not subject to interpretation.

REBECCA: I do not feel comfortable having this conversation.

ELLENOR: Why?

REBECCA: I did not show you those salaries to start up some revolt.

ELLENOR: It's not a revolt. We have an issue here, are we all going to just ignore it?

EUGENE: Look, Ellenor, I don't like making half of what she earns either, but the idea that there's some evil conspiracy going on...

ELLENOR: I'm not saying that...

REBECCA: Yes, you are. That's why we're having this secret meeting.

ELLENOR: It's not secret, Rebecca.

REBECCA: Oh, no? Then where's Bobby? Where's Lindsay?

ELLENOR: In trial.

REBECCA: Then why can't we wait till then? I mean, if you have a problem with somebody, go face to face. I don't like the smell of this meeting and I'm no longer in it.

ELLENOR: She's gonna back Bobby no matter what.

EUGENE: I'm backing him too, at least until I speak to him. As for Lindsay, you're making her into something that she isn't.

ELLENOR: She's good. Am I making her into that?

WIELAND: Nothing in the broadcast was untrue.

LINDSAY: This isn't a libel case. It's fraud. The truth of the broadcast isn't the issue, it's the truth of the promise that got them access to the restaurant.

WIELAND: You cannot decide whether that promise was broken without first evaluating the content of the broadcast. This is a complete end around the first amendment.

LINDSAY: This has nothing to do with the first amendment.

WIELAND: Have you read the Bill of Rights lately?

LINDSAY: Yes. And I've also read the Food Line case, and ABC made the same freedom of the press, flag waving defence. It didn't work there, and it's not going to work here because the issue here is fraud. Did the defendant commit fraud against the plaintiff. Did the plaintiff sustain injuries as a result of the fraud. The answer to both questions is yes.

CAMP: C'mon, counsel. Whichever way you phrase it, you are suing a news station for the content of a broadcast.

LINDSAY: The conduct for the basis of the suit is the misrepresentation...

CAMP: Yes, yes, you continue to frame the issue very nicely, but the net result is the same. A news station is being sued for undercover reporting.

LINDSAY: They can do undercover work. They just can't commit fraud against someone when they're....

CAMP: Suppose they snuck in, uninvited, and filmed the cockroaches. Then you'd sue for trespassing, claim harm from trespass. Nothing to do with the first amendment, right?

LINDSAY: These are good questions. From an appellant court judge. But you're a trial court judge. The only question you should be asking is have we set forth facts to support our claim? And, under existing law, under Food Line, we have.

WIELAND: First of all, this is not Food Line. Here we have an assault on the freedom of the press, not to mention the integrity of journalism.

LINDSAY: Gee, I'd hate to attack the integrity of journalism. Your client should have saluted those cockroaches out of professional courtesy.

WIELAND: Oh, you're very clever.

SAWYER: My intent was to do a positive piece. That's not something that I was just saying.

WIELAND: But at some point, you obviously changed the focus.

SAWYER: That point came when we discovered how unsanitary the kitchen was. This was a revered North end family restaurant. The chef was practically an icon, and that was the story we wanted to tell, but when I saw how filthy it was back there, it became a bigger story. And a more important one for people to hear, given the health issues.

WIELAND: But to be clear, after you were given permission to come in and film, your intent was to do the positive story?

SAWYER: Yes.

BOBBY: You never would've lied to get access?

SAWYER: No.

BOBBY: When you decided to switch the focus to attack the restaurant on sanitary grounds, did you tell anybody at the restaurant?

SAWYER: No.

BOBBY: You just continued to film?

SAWYER: Yes.

BOBBY: Were you being honourable when you changed the focus and didn't tell my client you were now out to trash his restaurant?

SAWYER: I'm a news reporter, Mr Donnell.

BOBBY: You're a news reporter. Does that mean you were being honourable, or was that the justification for being dishonourable?

BOBBY: At the time you changed your focus, why didn't you tell my client?

SAWYER: He would've thrown us out.

BOBBY: You didn't want him to know the truth?

SAWYER: At that point, no.

BOBBY: Do you know whether my client's restaurant received any code violations?

SAWYER: To my knowledge, they did not.

BOBBY: Did you mention that in your broadcast?

SAWYER: Just because a restaurant hasn't been sited doesn't...

BOBBY: The question before you is did you report in your broadcast that my client's restaurant has never been sited for any sanitary code violations?

SAWYER: We did not report that.

BOBBY: Mr Sawyer, what did you think would happen to my client's restaurant after you aired this piece?

SAWYER: I knew it would be detrimental.

BOBBY: You knew it would be detrimental? Did you consider that it might destroy his business?

SAWYER: Of course. I had to consider it.

BOBBY: So you knew you were being deceptive, and you knew they'd get hurt by relying on your deception. That's pretty much it, right, Mr Sawyer?

SAWYER: Expose reporting is a tough business, Mr Donnell.

BOBBY: Yeah. Tougher on some than others, I guess.

ELLENOR: How you doing, Jimmy?

JIMMY: Not bad. How's things with you?

ELLENOR: Good.

JIMMY: Good.

ELLENOR: Listen. I think the time is right to bring you up for partner. Bobby said wait a year, it's been a year... And with your big win over Tommy Silva, you know, timing's everything, they say. Just wanted you to know, I fully support it.

JIMMY: Thank you, Ellenor.

ELLENOR: Sure

BOBBY: You keep dodging my question. Why do you think that you're better at closing than I am?

LINDSAY: Can we just skip that...

BOBBY: No, I'd

really.. I'd really like to know.

LINDSAY: Well, okay... Your strength when it comes to closings is... passion, and my strength is more like clinical persuasion.

BOBBY: And....

LINDSAY: And, standing up and banging the righteous sympathy drum isn't going to sell the jury. I mean, they saw all those bugs...

BOBBY: I don't bang the sympathy drum, Lindsay. I mean, that's not my style.

LINDSAY: I meant that as a compliment. It's very persuasive

BOBBY: That's a compliment? Banging the sympathy drum?

LINDSAY: Why are you being so sensitive?

BOBBY: Well, you're making me sound like Johnny Cochrane or something

LINDSAY: Johnny Cochrane's a good lawyer.

BOBBY: If you like pulpit-thumping closings and I don't do that.

LINDSAY: All I'm saying, or trying to say is neutral legal reasoning works best here.

BOBBY: You mean dry?

LINDSAY: Excuse me?

BOBBY: Nothing.

LINDSAY: You think I'm dry?

BOBBY: No... no

LINDSAY: My closings are not dry.

BOBBY: Lindsay, you're a great lawyer, but Clarence Darrow, you're not.

LINDSAY: Oh, and you are?

BOBBY: The jury is bored by the time summations roll around if you don't stir things up a little.

LINDSAY: Bored? It's a one day trial.

BOBBY: I'm talking in general.

LINDSAY: I'm talking here. If you go in there and rant out of anger or outrage, we'll lose. A velvet glove is better here dammit and I am not dry!

BOBBY: Is this the velvet glove I'm hearing?

LINDSAY: Oh, shut up.

BOBBY: Fine. You do the closing.

LINDSAY: Fine.

LINDSAY: What are you doing?

ELLENOR: Well, I was about to knock. I never know what I'm gonna interrupt.

BOBBY: What's up, Ellenor?

ELLENOR: Uh, some partnership issues. I'd like to talk, maybe after this trial is over, or whenever you come up for air.

LINDSAY: What's that supposed to mean?

ELLENOR: Nothing.

LINDSAY: I think she needs a long vacation, Bobby. With three votes, we can give her one.

WATSON: This is a sentencing hearing.

HELEN: And you can call witnesses at a sentencing hearing.

BILLY: This is a cheap stunt to exploit your sympathy, Your Honour.

HELEN: I object to the insulting accusation that you would be manipulated by a witness. A judge should get a little more credit than that.

WATSON: Thank you for your support, counsel. I'm touched.

PATTERSON: I was in the middle lane, I was probably travelling around 60, when this green station wagon passed me.

HELEN: Did you see who was inside?

PATTERSON: Not then, when the car pulled into my lane in front of me, it looked like three kids, high school age, about. I never really saw their faces.

HELEN: Could you tell us what happened next?

PATTERSON: The driver reached out his side of the window, holding something. I thought it was a stuffed animal, it was orange coloured. And then, I saw it's legs moving, and I could tell it was alive. I thought `what's going on'? And then, after five or ten seconds, he let it go. And it hit my windshield and stuck there for a few seconds.

HELEN: Could you tell what it was then?

PATTERSON: Yes. It was a cat.

ELLENOR: Hey, Jimmy.

JIMMY: Ellenor.

ELLENOR: You given any thought to what I said before?

JIMMY: Actually, I've done nothing but think about it. Mainly, my thought is: to what do I owe this lightning bolt of good will.

ELLENOR: Sorry?

JIMMY: A sixth partner would tip that little power scale, wouldn't it? The Bobby/Lindsay block would no longer control, and you being my champion, I'd have these pulls of loyalties, wouldn't I?

ELLENOR: It isn't about that.

JIMMY: Really. Timing really is everything, I guess.

ELLENOR: You know what, Jimmy, forget it. And forgive me for looking out for you.

JIMMY: I don't want to be partner here, Ellenor. Too much politics for me.

LINDSAY: When I got my first apartment, I had cockroaches all over. Gross. Hate cockroaches. Don't we all? I mean, who here would go into a restaurant if they were told the kitchen was infested with those gross bugs? It was a no-brainer. That broadcast would put my clients' restaurant under. They knew it, they aired it anyway. Freedom of the press. They had a duty, they might argue. Warn the public. But this case is not about free speech, it's about fraud. They made a promise, they breached that promise. As a result of that breach a family business has been destroyed. You want to wrap an American flag around their conduct, stand up and salute the constitution, you can do that, but freedom of speech is never a defence to fraud. Never. And let's ask ourselves that dirty little question we've all secretly been asking. Do we really, really believe they went in there to do a puff piece? We don't have any evidence to the contrary, the truth lies in their minds only, but when you look at the landscape of news today, you see a lot of fluff features on restaurants? Today it's about scandals, hidden cameras and catching people. Every kitchen has bugs. It's not a big deal really, but add some good copy, some dramatic reporting, vivid footage, throw in a health scare and tease it during prime time, `could you be eating a cockroach tonight', that's a great hook. Easy to manufacture a story like that if you've got the footage and if you don't, well lie to get it. Lie proudly and declare journalistic integrity. Look what's happening today. Forget the tabloids, we have reporters at major newspapers, including the Boston Globe right here, getting caught making up stories. Writing stories about people who don't really exist. Plagiarising. CNN, Time magazine reporting about tail wind and germ warfare, don't let the facts spoil a good story, we can just print the retraction on weekends, or put it in a foot note. Anything to get the story and to get it first. Who cares who gets hurt? These people got hurt. They were defrauded. It cost them everything they had worked their whole lives for. Hail, hail freedom of the press. I think it's time to send a little message to all the cockroaches.

WIELAND: It's just open season on the press these days, isn't it? And why shouldn't it be? I mean, look at what the press has done. We all know that it was the media that planted that intern in the oval office. We know it was the press that caused all those republican congressmen to have that sudden explosion of conscience. And it was the journalists that convinced Kenneth Starr that his true calling was pornography. Journalism is like every profession. Some of it's good, some of it stinks. But for it to be good, it has to be unflinching. Yes, there was a representation made here that the article would be favourable, but that was based on the assumption that the kitchen was not bug infested. Should we have written a puff piece anyway? The place is crawling in germs, but we promised to be nice. Is that the kind of press we all want? What if we found body parts? Promised to be kind, don't enter it. Who are we kidding? They made a discovery and it was news. They would have you made that some kind of deal was made here. A deal that should be prioritised over the truth. Who are we kidding? When news is uncovered, reporters report it. That is the essence of a free press. We don't clear it through publicists. What if you bit into a cockroach one night and then found out that we sat on that story? Yes, send us a message.

REBECCA: Um, how was your date with the Celtic?

LUCY: Slam dunk. I'm seeing him again.

ELLENOR: You're dating a basketball player?

LUCY: They're the most law abiding of all professional athletes, Ellenor.

ELLENOR: Yeah, but doesn't your head come up to his... you know, knee?

LUCY: Nice. You know, if someone makes the slighted remark about your weight, you're quick to jump, but it's okay to make fun of the short-statured.

ELLENOR: I was making fun of the tall-statured.

WIELAND: Absolutely sealed, no admission of liability, not even a hint of it.

BOBBY: I think my client's going to want a public apology, otherwise....

WIELAND: Your client's going to turn down four hundred thousand dollars?

LINDSAY: They put him out of business.

WIELAND: Which means he must need money. Four hundred thousand. Something tells me he's gonna take it.

BOBBY: We'll bring it to him.

HELEN: Yesterday, I just wanted to plead this out and get to a spa and have some Swedish sex god rub the cellulite out of my ___. But then I met Mrs Tyler, over here, and suddenly I became horrified at my not being horrified over this. That young man grabbed her pet and hurled it out of a car going sixty miles an hour on a highway. Imagine. And imagine you, me and Mr Merino not even batting an eye. It was somebody's pet. And if he gets to just throw on a tie, stand contrite, say he's sorry and that's the end of it then... well, who are we? What he did was depraved, it was sick. And if we don't punish him, well, maybe we get the society we deserve. I'm not saying lock him up forever, Your Honour, but, for everybody's sake, even his, lock him up some.

BILLY: I'm not gonna stand here and defend what Brent Jones did. It was sick. And we should be horrified, but, as Miss Gamble admitted, she changed her mind, and decided against probation, only because she met the owner of the pet. And suddenly this case has a human face on it. But, let's be honest, this is not a case of a crime against a person, it was an animal. I don't mean to sound cold, and again, let me reiterate my own personal condemnation for this young man's act of cruelty, but this is about killing an animal. And the killing of animals - we slaughter cows, pigs in cruel ways, nobody gets arrested. A cat is an animal. Yes, a companion animal, one that's more loved by humans. If this was a bobcat, caught and tortured in a spring trap, we wouldn't be here. But a domestic cat? We have to recognise the hypocrisy, don't we? We're here, not because of some unusual act of cruelty, but because it happened to a person's pet. However much we might want to look at this as a crime against humanity, it isn't. This is a good young man. No record, honour student, from a good home. But he did something very stupid, for which he is hugely sorry, but we have to keep things in perspective.

ELLENOR: Two hundred and forty-two thousand dollars. That's my problem.

BOBBY: You know the pay structure, percentage of the business brought in.

ELLENOR: I know that we take her clients, not mine. I know that.

BOBBY: We voted on that asbestos client.

ELLENOR: Right, three hands for, two against, and since yours count double...

BOBBY: Is that why you went to Jimmy? To put a hand in your pocket?

ELLENOR: Two hundred and forty-two thousand dollars.

LINDSAY: Since when did you take such a strong interest in math, Ellenor?

ELLENOR: Certain equations fascinate me.

LINDSAY: Try adding two plus two. You couldn't do that with your asbestos clients.

ELLENOR: What is that supposed to mean?

LINDSAY: They're good people, they didn't know their stuff was killing people... That's crap. They knew at the turn of the century that asbestos kills, but if they pay their legal bills we'll just ignore it and pretend they're saints...

LUCY: Bobby?

Everyone: What?

LUCY: Hey! You know, it's a small head, and you can all bite it off, but there's just not enough to go round.

BOBBY: Let's pick this up in ten.

EUGENE: I'm not picking this up. I'm sick of this.

BOBBY: What's your problem?

EUGENE: The problem is this partnership. We used to be lawyers just taking the cases we felt like taking. Ever since we became partners, splitting up pieces of the pie, it's all about that. All about money...

LINDSAY: Nobody's forcing you, Eugene. You can divest.

EUGENE: But the rot is already in the wood.

LINDSAY: So you may as well take your cut.

ELLENOR: You pissy little bitch.

BOBBY: Oh, come on...

EUGENE: You know what, Lindsay? I've been trying to defend you, but it's getting harder and harder-

LINDSAY: Defend me against what? Her? Help someone who needs it.

ELLENOR: Is this what happens to women when you insert your penis? I'm just curious...

WATSON: Mr Merino's point is well taken. We drop live lobsters in hot, boiling water, we chop off chicken's heads and then happily enjoy the meal. To actually put a person in jail for killing an animal... But I agree with Miss Gamble. This was an act against decency. And to trivialise it would be an crime against humanity. There has to be a consequence. For the sake of society, for the sake of Miss Tyler, for the sake of an innocent cat. I sentence you to one year in county, nine months suspended, the remaining three to be served, starting now. Bailiff, take the defendant into custody. Adjourned.

BOBBY: It's still not too late. The offer's still-

JACOBS: I said no.

MRS JACOBS: Joseph, it's four hundred thousand dollars. Take it.

JACOBS: I want them to say that they were wrong.

BOBBY: They won't do that.

JACOBS: Then we don't settle.

WIELAND: One point five, still no admission.

JACOBS: No. I want the admission.

BOBBY: Unsealed.

WIELAND: Okay.

BOBBY: If it's unsealed the public sees the amount. That's the same as an admission. One point five, Joe, take it.

JACOBS: They're afraid it'll be more.

BOBBY: Maybe, but that kind of money....?

JACOBS: No.

FOREPERSON: Jacobs versus WYPR Broadcasting Company, on the grounds of fraud, we find in favour of the plaintiff and order the defendant to pay damages in the amount of two hundred thousand dollars. We further order the defendant to pay punitive damages in the amount of eighteen million dollars.

JACOBS: What? Did she say eighteen million???

CAMP: Order!!! Order!!! Order!!! You gotta be kidding me. You jackasses.

BOBBY: Your Honour, I'm not sure if that's... appropriate.

CAMP: Eighteen million dollars, what the hell is that? You find for the plaintiff, okay. Personally I disagree, but I was prepared to let it stand. But eighteen million? That's sounds to me like there's bias going on. You seem like very nice people but... I'll let the verdict stand, tempted as I am to vacate it. But I'm cutting the damages to two million. You, sir, should accept it and smile. Now, I'm going to go for a walk. Any luck, I'll get nicked by a bus, sprain a knee, file a claim, get rich and retire to the Bahamas. Adjourned.

JACOBS: Two is nice. Eighteen is better, but two is nice.

BOBBY: Sure is.

JACOBS: We can open up a new restaurant. With mahogany tables, curtains-

LUCY: Bug spray.

JIMMY: Two million, unbelievable.

EUGENE: Tell me about it.

JIMMY: That's almost seven thousand to the firm on contingency, you realise that?

ELLENOR: Wow.

JIMMY: And Lindsay's client too. She could make over a million this year.

ELLENOR: Yep.