Reflective Essay: Going To Court

Going to court was a new experience for me, since I had never been to a court here in the United States. When I arrived to the court, on one side of the room was the plaintiff with his lawyer Andrew McCormick and on the other side, was the defendant, who was being defended by himself. The plaintiff's attorney presented his opening statement to the judge, arguing that his client Mr. Weinberg was claiming $85,246.87 in disparagement of property and for breaking a leasing contract. When it was the defendant's turn, he did not give an extensive opening statement, he simply said that he was not going to pay what the plaintiff asked for since he had never set a foot on the property and that he was in his right to cancel the contract within 72 hours.
When the Plaintiff stepped in to testify he was showing confidence and his lawyer was presenting evidence that the deposit agreed by the agent and the defendant for the lease was canceled. I thought the plaintiff was winning the case. The defendant did not want to revoke against the plaintiff and proceeded to testify. When he stepped in, I could understand the case better. The defendant explained that
In one of the evidence the defendant showed the emails that he sent the agent and the other evidence was a photo of the building where, after a year of having canceled the contract, the building was not yet completed.
Before the judge dictated the verdict he acted as a 3rd party giving the strengths and weaknesses of both the plaintiff and the defendant. Then, the judge rendered the verdict in favor of the defendant. Since the plaintiff did not presented relevant evidences and did not proof preponderance of the evidence. Although the defendant won the case, the plaintiff was expected to take the case to an appeal court in the next few