Tick... tick... tick —

Apple v. Samsung judge, at wit’s end, asks if lawyers are “smoking crack”

Each side keeps witnesses (and objections) coming despite judge's time allotment.

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA—Testimony in the giant Apple v. Samsung patent trial is entering its final hours, and nerves are fraying on all sides. US District Judge Lucy Koh laid into lawyers this morning, demanding to know how she could be expected to go through 75 pages of objections to witnesses that she doesn't believe will have time to testify in any case.

"You want me to do an order on 75 pages tonight? When, unless you're smoking crack, you know that these witnesses are not going to be called?" Koh shouted at Apple lawyers. "Who is going to call all these witnesses when you have less than four hours left?"

At the midmorning break, Samsung had less than two hours of time available to present its case to the jury, while Apple had less than four hours. (Judge Koh gave each side 25 hours total for the trial, not including opening and closing arguments). The great majority of the 20+ witnesses still listed to testify are Apple witnesses.

"Your honor, first of all, I'm not smoking crack," said Apple lawyer Bill Lee. "We have timed it out."

Apple lawyer Michael Jacobs also stepped forward, assuring her that they had done a time test, and could get through 20 witnesses today and tomorrow in its rebuttal case against Samsung. "We didn't mean to burden the court," he said.

"You filed 75 pages of objections!" said Koh. "What do you mean you didn't mean to burden the court?"

Koh promised Apple's lawyers that if they were overshooting the mark in their estimates, she would think of a penalty. "If it turns out I will have gone through 75 pages of objections for people who are not realistically expected to be called, then I'm going to think up a proper tax for that," she said.

 

Channel Ars Technica