The”this is the first time it has happened”defense
I subscribe to a little meditation pamphlet that has daily readings with Scripture quotes. This reading struck me as having application to the situation where the defendant argues they have had no previous problems. It could be a defective product where they claim no previous injuries or a street intersection or any other situation where the defense says how could it be negligence or all that bad because we haven’t had this happen before. Here’s the story in the pamphlet:
"A man was filling out a job application when he came to the question: "Have you ever been arrested.?" he wrote "No." The next question was intended for people who had answered "yes" to the previous question. it was "Why?" The applicant answered the question anyway with "I just never got caught."
That struck me as exactly the situation in these case were the defense is claim this is the first problem they had with the product or other situation. It’s not profound, but I thought it was a clever answer to the defense.