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A court can draw adverse inference based on defendant's actions. So yes the judge can say that, but you'll note he says "we're not there yet, I don't know." and
by bravo22 10y ago
A court can draw adverse inference based on defendant's actions. So yes the judge can say that, but you'll note he says "we're not there yet, I don't know." and words to that effect. He is warning them that this doesn't look good for you but I haven't made up my mind so don't take this as judgment.
- Animats 10y agoThe case is not at trial yet. They're still in discovery and coming up on a possible preliminary injunction. Evidence is coming in and going on record, but it's not evaluated at this stage. That's why the judge makes remarks like "we're not there yet".
- bravo22 10y agoThis is a hearing for a preliminary injunction. It comes before the actual trial. So we're pretty close to "there", for the purposes of the injunction. The idea is you stop the (possibly) bad behaviour based on the evidence at hand, to prevent long term damage while the trial winds its way through the courts.