[Boston Legal][S02][E05]Denise Bauer在皮卡车一案中的开案陈词

Good morning.
My name is Denise Bauer.
I, along with Sara Holt, will be
representing the plaintiff Jose Pitino,
whose wife Elena died in the
fire that started in their garage
when their pickup truck,
manufactured and sold by the defendant,
suddenly burst into flames.
The truck was not running at the time.
In fact, it had not been driven all night.
Let me begin by saying
that a terrible human tragedy has occurred here,
and of course nothing
that happens in this courtroom
will bring Elena Pitino back.
Lawsuits, you see,
are ultimately about money,
putting a dollar figure on suffering.
Admittedly, there is some question
as to how much Elena even suffered in the fire.
Also admittedly, Elena was in
the final stages of ovarian cancer.
She had come home from the hospital,
in fact, that very day, basically to die.
You may ask yourselves,
"What damages did she really endure?"
Well, you will hear from Jose Pitino,
and what you will hear is that she had a day
and another day coming after that
and another one after that.
She had, in fact, six or seven
days to be at home with her family.
She didn't get those days.
She never got that last
opportunity to sit with her grandchildren.
Jose was never able to hold
his wife of 37 years in his arms.
Hold her in his arms and, um...
if any of you have spent the
final days with a loved one
dying of cancer or another disease,
you know that those moments are the most precious.
Jose and Elena Pitino had those days coming.
They didn't get them.
You can't bring Elena Pitino back,
but you are in a position to help save others.
Because lawsuits, in addition to money,
are about allocating burden.
Who is best able to prevent
this tragedy from happening again?
Well, you might be inclined to think
this is just a freak accident.
But in fact, this is a much bigger problem.
This is a very popular sport truck
made by a major manufacturer of sport trucks,
and they're catching fire.
The defendant has recently recalled
almost a million of their vehicles
because of this malfunction.
So you see, this is potentially your problem.
How do you motivate a
corporate conglomerate to fix a defect?
You make it too expensive for them not to.
At the conclusion of this trial,
when it finally comes down to a dollar amount,
I'll be asking you to be legislators
and come back with a number
that says to the defendant
and all car manufacturers,
"Make your vehicles safe".
For your sake,
for your daughters,
for your grandsons.
And I'll ask you to be human beings,
the conscience of a compassionate society,
and return with a verdict that somehow reflects
everything that was taken from Elena Pitino,
her family and most of all...
her high-school sweetheart.