Gwyneth Paltrow’s ski crash trial is nearing completion

PARK CITY, Utah – Tue closely observed The trial over a 2016 skiing collision between Gwyneth Paltrow and the retired optometrist who is suing her over the injuries he sustained is expected to end on Thursday when lawyers present closing arguments and refer the case to the eight-member jury.

Terry Sanderson, 76, is suing Paltrow, claimed she was out of control and crashed into him, leaving him with four broken ribs and a concussion, with symptoms lasting years after the collision.

After a judge dismissed his original $3.1 million lawsuit, Sanderson amended and refiled the lawsuit to reach “more than $300,000” — a threshold that presents the possibility that the present most of the evidence and dismiss most of the witnesses in a civil court. In response, Paltrow sued for a token dollar and attorneys’ fees.

Paltrow’s defense team used most of their last full day to control the witness stand to call medical experts to testify. Sanderson’s attorneys are expected to begin calling back their medical experts Thursday morning to refute Paltrow’s claims. Each side then has about an hour to present their closing arguments to the jury.

Paltrow’s attorneys are expected to continue their two-pronged approach, both arguing that the actor-turned-lifestyle influencer didn’t cause the accident and that its effects aren’t as bad as Sanderson claims. They have portrayed him as a “possessed” man making “absolute crap” claims against someone whose fame leaves them vulnerable to unfair, frivolous lawsuits.

Sanderson’s team will likely cite how the man who claims to be the only eyewitness testified to how Paltrow hit her client and spin the case as a contemporary David vs. Goliath story, in which Sanderson sustained injuries and died Had the courage to take on a movie star.

Sanderson testified Friday that he continued to pursue claims for damages seven years after the accident because the cascading events that followed – his post-concussion symptoms and allegations that he sued to exploit Paltrow’s celebrity – made the injury even more insulting.

“That’s the purpose: to make me regret this lawsuit. It’s the pain of suing a celebrity,” he said Wednesday in response to a question from his attorney about Paltrow’s team investigating his personal life, medical records and extensive international travel itineraries after the crash.

Although both sides mobilized significant resources to emerge victorious, the verdict could end up being remembered as an afterthought dwarfed by the global attention the trial has garnered. The amount of money at stake for both sides pales in comparison to the typical legal costs of a multi-year litigation, private security details and a multi-expert litigation.

With long lists of witnesses on call, attorneys faced difficult decisions about how to juggle their hired experts with family members, doctors, and testimonies from Sanderson and Paltrow themselves.

Paltrow’s defense team picked mostly experts Wednesday to build their final defense. They chose to have four medical experts testify instead of Paltrow’s husband, television producer Brad Falchuk.

In the last hour of their last full day to call witnesses, they called Sanderson back to the witness stand. A day earlier, they read statements from Paltrow’s two children — Apple and Moses — rather than calling them to testify, as they previously indicated they planned to do.

Among the most bombastic statements were Paltrow and Sanderson. On Friday, members of the jury were tied as Paltrow said on the stand that she initially thought she would be “hurt” when the collision began. Three days later, Sanderson gave a very different account, saying she encountered him and “absolutely let him fly.”

The trial has also thrown the spotlight on Park City, best known as a ski resort that welcomes celebrities like Paltrow every year Sundance Film Festival.

Local residents increasingly filled the courtroom gallery during the trial. They nodded as attorneys and witnesses pointed to local landmarks like Montage Deer Valley, the ski hotel spa where Paltrow got a massage after the collision. At times they seemed captivated by Paltrow’s reactions to the proceedings, while at other times they reflected the jury, whose endurance was being tested by hours of medical testimony.