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Juror number 7 raised his hand in the middle of questioning: "I need to use the restroom". The timing could not have been worse but at the same time it could not have been better.  "I had just thrust a proverbial dagger into the Plaintiff's first witness and was ready to twist it until he was stripped bare of his credibility" said lead trial attorney Mike Nichols.  "I've tried lots of cases and I've had lots of crazy things happen but that was a first," he added.  The break paved the way for the parties to enter into a favorable settlement agreement for the firm's client.  Nichols said: "it wasn't just a matter of my cross examination because we had finally gotten closer to settlement when the trial started. I think it was a combination of a ten minute break to work out details of an agreement that had been bubbling for several days, a favorable ruling from the judge that we could present some potentially damaging evidence to the plaintiff's case and, the plaintiff was on the stand, had a taste of my cross examination and was not very excited about the prospect of more."  The Nichols Law Firm's client was sued right before Christmas, 2006, for allegedly violating a no compete with his former employer. The judge granted the plaintiff an injunction early in the case and the plaintiff was awarded a case evaluation that exceeded a quarter of a million dollars.  The settlement allowed the client to purchase the clients in dispute and avoided any danger that the client would face sanctions for allegedly violating the court's injunction as the plaintiff had alleged.