Passing over: Violence: The text of muteness in personal injury litigation

... I have previously drawn a detailed analogy between the genre of melodrama and personal injury litigation (Hardy 2004a, 2004b: 155-77). ... Considering the role of the plaintiff as analogous to the mute role in melodrama focuses attention on a number of factors often ignored in examinations of personal injury litigation. ... A personal injury trial is also, to adapt Brooks's description of melodrama, primarily concerned with expressing clearly and unambiguously the problems with which it deals. ... However, despite the apparent emphasis on the spoken word in the personal injury trial, the paradox of the text of muteness is also evident in the legal injury narrative. ... The mute role is also evident when a plaintiff is asked to provide evidence of his or her pain and suffering. ... These two aspects reflect the paradox of the text of muteness in melodrama and the legal injury narrative. ... Another tension arises with respect to the plaintiff's mute role because the legal injury narrative requires a plaintiff with a physical injury to complain of pain. ... In the legal injury narrative the personal injury plaintiff lawyer is not acting the part of the client. ... The importance of gesture, both before and during the trial, and the particular tensions faced by a personal injury litigant in relation to verbalising their claim and their suffering, are also highlighted. .