19 Lawyers Revealed The Cases They Regret Winning

6.

“In one of my first cases after passing the bar exam, a young man retained me on a drunk driving charge. No one was hurt, but he totaled his car. During the trial, the arresting police officer testified that my client was clearly drunk at the accident scene and that my client was loudly blaming the accident on a jerk who stole his car, crashed it, and then fled before the cops arrived. However, according to two other witness statements tendered into evidence, it was my client’s friend (the passenger) who was screaming about the person who stole the car, not my client (the driver). The cop must have confused the two men during his testimony. This discrepancy raised a reasonable doubt in the judge’s mind, so she acquitted my client.”

“At the time, the acquittal was somewhat unexpected for me (in my personal view, my client was clearly drunk and responsible for the accident, regardless of who was blaming the mystery jerk to the cops), but I was happy my young client got off, no one was hurt, and lessons were learned. And I was quite euphoric to have won my first criminal case. The regret? About a month after the acquittal, my young client called me at 3 a.m. from the police station saying, ‘It’s me again! The police arrested me for drunk driving again! Can you help me?’ Not only did I answer no, but I instantly regretted getting the earlier acquittal. My client apparently didn’t learn any lessons…”

—u/Horrified_Witness