 And we have next two personal participants in the process, Patricia Baxter and Brian Baxter, and their attorney, Christopher, and I'm going to fall into my colleague, Ted Olson's pattern of not being sure how to pronounce your name, but is it Sufrit? Correct. Close enough. Perfect. Thank you. Mr. Sufrit, do you want to begin and sort of set the context for what we're going to hear? Happy to. I represent Shelby Baxter and her parents here in a lead paint poisoning case. And we have a photo, but we couldn't put it on the screens. This is Shelby at the time of the poisoning back in 1995. And we still haven't gotten to trial. This is Shelby now at her prom the other week. The case has been in the court system waiting for trial on numerous occasions. We had our first hope at trial in 2004. And then through a series of delays and motions, we were put off and we came back up on 2008. The courts were too busy. We were told to come back in 2009. We did. The court was too busy. We were told to come back in 2010. We did. The court was too busy. So now we're told that perhaps this winter, 2011, we will have a chance for a trial. We're not holding a lot of hope that that will happen, but we cross our fingers. Each time that this case comes up for trial, Shelby has to be prepared. She has to get ready for this event. A courtroom is not her natural element. She's scared. We get a calm down. And then we have to tell her, sorry, come back next year. We've done that on multiple occasions. Each time we come up for trial, we have to prepare the witnesses, the doctors, her pediatricians, her teachers who try to teach her. And each time the case gets delayed, those witnesses probably change. They have changed because now we have new doctors. We have new teachers every year. So that's the human side of the budget crisis and the delays. And I think that Brian might have a little bit of input on that, if you would. Sure. Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. Come to you is a person that loves and is very happy and proud to live in New Hampshire. Very proud to be a dad of a young lady that's just my pride and joy. And I've grown up working for the last 20 to 25, 30 years, thinking some things always happen in New Hampshire. Some of the things are work hard. You go forward, be a role model for your kids, maybe it'll rub off. One day they'll have to make their decisions, but also as a dad to protect them at all costs, which Patty and I have always stroked to do with both of our children. And we didn't ask for this to happen for our child at one years old. Over the years I said, okay, it was delayed and all delayed and readjusted because the court systems have a lot on their plate. I totally understand that. So the first time you take it on the chin, okay, then the second time you take it on the chin. I always grew up knowing that you're supposed to have a swift, swift trial. And I know that courts are overworked, but we're prosecuting hundreds and hundreds of thousands of criminal cases that make it into the system each year in New Hampshire, for example, for burglary. And it's because someone stole from someone's home. While it's a homeowner as a dad, it's as important, I don't want them to take my valuables, but maybe they took a valuable from my daughter. So it's as important not five years, then I was six years, almost 10 years later. Now we're past 10 years trying to get into the court. My daughter is far more valuable than any possession I have in my home. But our homeowner stuff is making into the courts the criminal stuff, the DUIs. And I see it, I've been in law enforcement going on almost 20 years. I understand that. I'm proud of that fact. But I think the fairness, it feels very unfair to dad. I'm just wondering when my daughter gets her day in court, because she's gone from the one year old that was affected to my baby that was at the senior prom. But how has this affected her? And I want the courts to be able to decide that through research and trial and all everything that's put into it, she deserves her day in court. Thank you. Thank you. Mrs. Baxter, do you have anything to add to that? These two are definitely the talkers of the bunch. I agree with everything that they've said. I have just one question before I start the panel discussion. I was on a TED radio program today, and I actually was asked for an example of delay, and I referenced a case that started in 1993, a commercial case that was still not a trial. And the moderator asked me a question that I want to ask you, which is what part of this delay is due to the courts just not having the resources and what part of the delay, if any, is due to litigation tactics with perhaps the defendant wanting to delay the ultimate resolution? I would say that two-thirds of it is due to the inability of the courts to get to this case. And I don't blame any delay on the defendants. They file motions, and the court has to hear them, but then when the court doesn't have time to hear those motions, there was one time in this case that we traveled throughout the state because they had it assigned to one judge to hear the motions, and one day he's sitting in Nashua. We drive down to Nashua an hour and a half away. The next day he's up in Likoni. We drive an hour north. You know, we do what you've got to do, but we still have not gotten a trial. Just a quick one. Chris, or the Baxter's, and by the way, thank you for coming here and sharing your story. I'm curious, and I don't want to make this too regional, but have you had interaction with your legislators? Have you spoken to people in the legislature in that process about this issue? I have numerous occasions, but there's bigger crises that they're dealing with than the court systems. Thank you. Other questions from the panel? Thank you for coming in. Have you had to substitute the names of your defendants, the representatives of the defendant? No, fortunately the defendant is still alive and still around. Any possibility of settlement negotiations? The trouble with that is that because of the delay, the continuous gearing up, the numerous experts, it's almost gotten to the point that it's impossible financially to settle. Is it too much invested over 10 years? I think just as a comment, I think one of the underappreciated consequences of delay is how much more difficult it makes it to settle cases. The vast majority of cases ideally would be settled, but I think we've all had the experience that the longer a case goes on, the more that gets invested and the more emotion that gets invested in the case, the harder it is to ultimately settle that case. And so I think one of the tragedies of this kind of delay is that not only does it delay ultimate justice, but it makes it necessary that that ultimate justice actually come from a full trial. The defendant's lawyer mentioned to me a month ago that he calculated if a verdict is entered, it will almost be doubled by just the pre-judgment interest because of the delay in this case, almost doubled. Other questions from the panel? Thank you very much. Thank you. Do you have something to add? Can I just one part in the comment? My daughter is a wonderful young lady, just love her to pieces. And every time this comes up over the years and get her prepared like Chris says, she has to say, ooh, I was poisoned. And am I different? How was I affected? You know, as a dad, I just wanted to go off the platform between 16, 17, 18 and start making these life decisions. And you know what? She's questioned how have I been affected. I just want to put closure to it. And I wanted to enjoy life to her fullest. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. And you have our sympathy. Thank you.