Marlee: Anybody can be gotten to.
Rankin Fitch: Everybody has a secret they don't want you to find.
Rankin Fitch: ...the thing of it is, I don't give a shit. What's more... I never have.
Rankin Fitch: Somebody add "class-clown" to Mr. Easter's ever expanding resume.
Rankin Fitch: What do you hope to achieve if you win? You gonna bring Jacob Wood back to life? No. You just ensure that his wife goes to the cemetery in a better car, and that the heel that she snaps on the way to the graveside belongs to a $1,200 shoe. You get your name in the paper. But Jacob Wood and all the other gun violence victims remain rotting in their crypts.
Judge Harkin: I'm not sure, but I believe I'm buying lunch.
Rankin Fitch: Gentlemen, trials are too important to be left up to juries.
Chosen answer: Remember, in the book, the lawsuit is against tobacco companies and not gun manufacturers. In the book, Marlee's mother died of smoking-related lung cancer, thus the motivation for revenge against the tobacco companies. In the movie, the reason to avoid Mom is to maintain the stealth of Marlee and Nick's movements as they tried to "fix" a jury.
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