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Counsel for the Red Deer lawyer suing Stockwell Day for defamation was in court last week arguing that the complex case should be heard by a judge, not a jury.
“I said I had absolute faith (in the impartiality of a jury),” Lorne Goddard’s lawyer, Virginia May, tells NOW, “but that these expert arguments are far too ridiculous and are all issues of law. A judge decides the law, and a jury decides the facts.”
Day’s lawyer, Robert Thompson, declined to comment. But he has said it’s a public dispute that needs to be heard by a jury.
Goddard is suing Day for comments the former Alberta treasurer made in a letter to the editor of a Red Deer newspaper suggesting Goddard shared the views of a convicted pedophile the lawyer was defending on child porn charges. The case is scheduled to go to trial next month. But observers speculate Day will ask for an adjournment if an election is called.