Warren Paboojian's Argument on Evidence Helps Deliver 7-Figure Win in Trial Over Ponzi Scheme

In closings at trial over a real estate Ponzi scheme, Baradat & Paboojian Inc.’s Warren Paboojian delivers a deft argument on the value of evidence to secure a seven-figure win for his client, fighter Chuck Liddell.

Paboojian, representing Liddell, claimed a real estate title company was responsible for the fighter being swindled in a real estate scheme. A key issue was whether Liddell knowingly signed key documents in the agreement.

During closings, Paboojian first explains to jurors the importance of giving due weight to indirect or circumstantial evidence connecting the title company to the claimed fraud. Mindful that jurors may tend to misunderstand or minimize indirect evidence, he leads with an easy-to-understand example of how powerful such evidence can be to prove a case.

"You go to bed at night, you look out your window, you don’t see any snow,” he says. “You wake up in the morning, and there’s two feet of snow on the front lawn. Well, you didn’t see it snow. But you know it snowed because that’s the only way your whole neighborhood has snow over all their lawns.

“That’s circumstantial evidence. That’s indirect evidence. That counts as much as direct evidence,” he adds, emphasizing the weight of indirect evidence pointing to conduct key to his fraud claim.

By contrast, Paboojian highlights CACI 203, regarding a party’s failure to produce better evidence. Paboojian breaks down the instruction and says that, while the defense claimed Liddell signed the amendment documents at issue, they did not produce anyone that actually saw him execute the papers.

“This is an escrow company,” he says. “They’re notarizing things. Not one person,” testified that they saw Liddell sign every document at issue.

That breakdown of the value of evidence helped deliver a $1.9+ million award to Liddell at trial on a $2.9+ million total verdict.