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Originally Posted by pwalker8
For the most part, the evidence is the footnote already referenced by Barcey where Judge Cote said "...the Court had already prepared a draft opinion...".
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Here is the footnote in full:
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The Court’s procedures for non-jury proceedings were discussed in detail at conferences held on June 22 and October 26, 2012, and May 8, 2013. As the parties were informed, the Court prepared a draft opinion in advance of the bench trial based on the witness affidavits and other documents submitted with the pretrial order and the arguments of counsel in their trial memoranda. At trial, the affiants swore to the truth of the contents of their affidavits and were tendered for cross and redirect examination, and the other trial evidence was formally received. The parties understood that the Court’s final findings of fact and conclusions of law would incorporate all of this evidence. Consistent with these procedures, and with the expectation that the Court had already prepared a draft opinion, the parties jointly asked the Court for its preliminary views on the merits at the final pretrial conference held on May 23, 2013.
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It is perfectly clear that the draft opinion referred to is Judge Cote's preliminary thoughts based on the evidence submitted pre-trial and not a reference to writing a draft of the final judgement before the main trial.
Graham