People often think that leverage for a settlement decreases after a judgment is entered. After all, someone has already won the case. This is more true after an appellate court has issued an opinion. But cases can still be settled after judgment is entered and during, or even after, an appeal.
Every trial lawyer knows that when a court excludes a witness’s testimony, an offer of proof is necessary to preserve any argument that the exclusion was error. How to conduct a proper offer of proof, however, may not be so clear. Recently, in Schultz v. Great Plains Trucking, Inc., the Missouri Supreme Court discussed what it determined to be improper preservation in the context of an excluded expert witness in a wrongful death case. 707 S.W.3d 570 (Mo. 2025).
You’ve gone through the long process of investigation, discovery, negotiation, and trial. Perhaps you’re ecstatic about the outcome of your case at trial. Perhaps you’re disappointed in the court’s ruling. Regardless, you might find yourself beginning a new process:...