Balance of Power

    "Not directly. But I imagine you've read Rice versus Paladin Enterprises?"

    Briefly, Lenihan hesitated. "Remind me of the facts."

    "Rice imposed liability on a magazine for running an article describing how to commit a flawless execution . . ."

    "I might recall that," Lenihan snapped, "if the case were relevant. I asked you to cite me a precedent."

    "We can make the precedent," Sarah answered. "In my naïveté, I assumed that's what plaintiffs' lawyers do. Or are you suggesting that if Lexington wanted to place an ad saying that the P-2 was the best gun for batterers to use against their women, the SSA could run it with impunity?" Facing Mary, Sarah remained calm. "It's all a question of who's responsible," she said, "and why you've chosen to do this. To me, the SSA is morally responsible for thousands of needless deaths like these.

    "Whether they're legally responsible is another matter. Proving that could be as hard as Bob says. But you should know what choices you have." Once more she turned to Lenihan. "Whatever we do, Bob, we need to accelerate discovery."

    "Because Fasano's pushing the Civil Justice Reform Act?"

    "Yes. The more we discover against Lexington and the SSA, the toughter it becomes to pass that law. If necessary, we'll take the depositions of people like Dane, and then leak them to the press."

    For the first time, Lenihan smiled, his expression somewhere

between agreement and amusement. "Every now and then, Sarah, you give me hope. But how do you persuade a judge to accelerate discovery? Not so you can leak sworn testimony at a quicker pace, the better to embarrass Senator Fasano."

    "No," Sarah came back. "By asking for injunctive relief to prevent an ongoing threat to public safety."

    Lenihan glanced at Mary. "An injunction?" he asked in a tone of muted wonder. "Against what ongoing threats? I don't mean to be insensitive, but Mary's family is already dead."

    Silent, Mary stared at her folded hands. "And more will die," Sarah answered, "if this law passes, and then the President can't get his gun law through the Congress. This case is about far more than money, Bob. No amount of that will compensate Mary for what she's lost."

    "That's politics, not law," Lenihan insisted. "On what basis do we get a judge to order discovery at maximum speed?"

    "Lexington," Sarah retorted, "is committing a public nuisance. That means any unreasonable interference with a right common to all Californians. Including the right not to be murdered by guns banned in California, like the Lexington P-2.

    "You've said it yourself, Bob. I think we can show that Lexington is flooding the state with guns sold just beyond the Nevada border. I also think we can show that an inordinate number of them are used to murder Californians—as with Mary's family. And we already know that Lexington and the SSA showed criminals and people like John Bowden where to buy it in Nevada without going through a background check." Looking from Lenihan to Mary, Sarah finished, "It's not that hard a case. Your family's death is part of a pattern—a company selling bad guns to bad people in a number of rotten ways. A pattern that should be stopped by an injunction."

    Mary sat straighter. "If that's what's going on," she said to Lenihan, "and we can stop it, I want to."

    "And those are good intentions," Lenihan said respectfully. "But speeding up the discovery process so drastically exacerbates our problems. It allows the lawyers for the SSA to play more games—withholding documents so we question witnesses like Dane without having the facts we need, then forcing us into a trial we're not ready for. And adding the SSA will turn a fiasco into a nightmare.

    "Sarah knows the drill as well as I do. We go in for a temporary restraining order, which we probably won't get. Then the judge will likely set a hearing on a preliminary injunction within ten

days. Within sixty to ninety days, we'll have plowed through all of our discovery— getting jerked around at every turn, and be facing a trial we're not ready for."

"Bob," Sarah said, "you've sued IBM, AT&T, and half the Fortune

500. What does your firm have all these lawyers for, if not to use them?"

    "So we can decide when to use them, and where using them makes sense."

    "It's your money," Sarah answered. "No question. I can only hope that stopping the SSA, keeping more murders from happening, and helping President Kilcannon save lives will satisfy your sense of occasion."

    To Sarah's surprise, Lenihan laughed aloud. "I should let you say that to my partners," he said with irony but less hostility. "I'm sure they'd be delighted to put their money and our firm at your disposal."

    Sarah spread her hands. "That," she said with a smile, "is all I could ask. But let's put that aside. Assuming that we collectively decide to do all this, where and when do we file?"