The Verdict

Frank Galvin (actor Paul Newman ) was an alcoholic , unlucky , ambulance chaser , and lawyer . He was handed a very important malpractice case . A young woman had died in a catholic hospital in a suspicious way . At first Frank , didn 't feel capable to go to trial and he was willing to settle everything outside the court by accepting a great sum of money from the church . As he was taking Polaroid photos of the young woman 's body he had a revelation and he concluded that his client deserved a chance to justice , that

the guilty should be punished and that , one way or the other , his standing as a lawyer restored

Statements were brought against the catholic hospital . Frank didn 't accept the money and he was ready to go to trial . Judge Hoyle was influenced by the church to make Frank accept the sum of money , but Galvin still didn 't accept the money . The bishop was eager to wrap things up without making waves

The catholic hospital was summoned to trail in the case of the comatose woman who died . The archdiocese being sued hires a professional team of lawyers for defense

The experienced and well established anesthesiologist of the catholic hospital , doctor Towler , is brought to the stand and from his cross examination by the plaintiff , resulted that the doctors were sure that patient Deborah Ann Kaye , had her last meal nine hours before the general anesthetic , not one hour , witch meant she was not in any danger before the operation

The seventy four year old doctor Thompson is accepted as the expert witness . During his direct examination Judge Hayle interfered with more than a few questions witch confused Galvin and didn 't permit him to go any further with the witness 's examination . From doctor Thompson 's answers resulted that a nine minute lapse in restoring the heart beat didn 't mean that doctor Marks and doctor Towler were in any way negligent with their patient

Galvin had all his odds against him but eventually he had an ace up his sleeve , a surprise witness . He brings Kaitlin Costello Price to the stand , a nurse who had worked at the catholic hospital . The scene of her cross and direct examination is very tense . She revealed a new piece of evidence . A document , which was in fact a photocopy of the patient 's admittance form . It was the original admittance form , before it was modified . She swore that she had been threatened by doctor Towler , to be fired , if she didn 't change the numbers on the admittance form . She had to put a nine instead of 1 , and that meant that Deborah 's last meal had been nine hours before the general anesthetic , instead of one hour After she was asked to do that she decided to photocopy the true admittance form . After all , the document was not taken in consideration by the judge and her testemony was in the end disallowed . Obviously the nurse had...