Episode 74
April 9, 2026
A Six Minute Closing and a $6 Million Verdict: Jack De La Piedra and Andy Delaney
Episode Summary
In this episode, host Brendan Lupetin explores what is often the most gut-wrenching part of a case: waiting for the verdict. To do so, he invites the trial team of Andy Delaney and Jack De La Piedra for a step-by-step breakdown of their recent wrongful death case against the operators of a Florida nursing home. They represented the family of a woman who died after a bedsore went untreated and wasn’t even revealed to the patient or her family. After trial – which included a six-minute closing and a three-minute cross-examination – they were at lunch when they got the call. The jury was returning. Tune in to hear what happened next.
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- Jack De La Piedra and Andy Delaney met at Trial Lawyers College in 2015 and have tried multiple cases together through their decade-long friendship.
- Jack and Andy represented the family of an 87-year-old woman who was in a Florida nursing home when she got a Stage 2 bedsore that neither she nor the family was told existed. Over 10 days at the nursing home, her health deteriorated; she died after finally being taken to the hospital.
- In voir dire, Jack asked the entire panel if they had heard the phrase, “If it wasn’t documented, then it didn’t happen.” Every hand went up, establishing the theme that would carry through the entire trial.
- Jack’s opening featured no PowerPoint, just a flip chart, two rules, and a physical reenactment on a rolling utility cart that showed jurors exactly how the patient was suffering in her bed..
- In Andy’s three-minute cross-examination of the corporate representative, he asked one question: Did he believe the operators of the nursing home were negligent? The response was a flat “no.” With no further questions, Andy let the answer speak for itself.
- Jack’s closing argument ran just six minutes, skipping the evidence recap and focusing on the heart of the case. The defense counsel’s attempt to mock its brevity backfired and made their own position look weaker.
Jack De La Piedra
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