General Hospital (GH) spoilers tease that the custody hearing between Nelle Benson Archer (Chloe Lanier) and Michael Corinthos (Chad Duell) will get under way, and it’s going to be contentious. As GH viewers know, Michael is up for a real battle, as Nelle has Martin Gray (Michael E. Knight) representing her. Martin is a real shark, and he’s going to give Michael and his lawyer Diane Miller (Carolyn Hennesy) a serious fight.
It’s certainly looking like Michael is going to show up to the hearing a married man, having just wed Willow Tait (Katelyn MacMullen) to give him an edge in the hearing.
Diane has told Michael on numerous occasions that the only real way to have a competitive edge at the hearing is to be married to someone who’s likely to be viewed as pure and able to help Michael give Wiley Quartermaine Corinthos (Erik and Theo Olson) a stable home. Willow seems to fit the bill.
But it seems that with all of Diane’s worrying about getting Michael married, she might be neglecting to prep one important aspect of the case – and that’s preparing Carly Corinthos (Laura Wright) to testify. We don’t doubt that Carly will be a good witness when Diane is questioning her about Michael, Wiley, and the horrible things that Nelle has done.
But what about when Martin cross-examines Carly? Carly is pretty reactive and tends to take the bait quickly, and Martin will surely use that to his advantage.
Has Diane done anything to prepare Carly for the inevitable onslaught of loaded and pointed questions that she’ll get from Martin? Sure, this could be happening off-screen, but it doesn’t seem like Diane has given much thought to witness preparation.
GH spoilers indicate that Martin is going to be terribly hard on Carly during cross examination, and he’ll probably use her testimony to try to show that Nelle never stood a fair shake among the Corinthos and Quartermaine families.
Carly will probably play right into Martin’s hand by getting upset and defensive in response to his questions and looking “judgy” toward Nelle.
One wonders just how well Michael has been prepped for his testimony as well. Michael can be very even-tempered and even passive at times, but he does have an ice-cold side that comes out when he gets really angry or protective of others.
Martin is liable to bring out that side of Michael on the stand, and Michael will have to work hard to contain it – something that typically comes with hours of witness preparation and training.
Yet, Diane thought it was a good idea to get Wiley’s hearing over with really quickly, without ample opportunity for the witnesses to prepare sufficiently. It could be a real recipe for disaster, and GH spoilers indicate that at least Carly’s testimony will be detrimental for Michael’s case.
Nelle will probably sit in court calm, cool, and collected, while Carly gets defensive and upset, which will look pretty bad to the judge.
In the end, it will all be up to the judge, but of course he or she won’t have all the backstory with which to judge Nelle. Rather the judge will go by what he or she sees in court, so Martin’s tear down of Carly is going to be pretty damaging for Michael’s case.
We’ll see what ultimately happens in the custody case, but it looks like things will get off to a rocky start for Michael. Do you think that Diane is outmatched as a lawyer by Martin? Stick with the ABC soap and keep checking CDL for all the new General Hospital spoilers and news. We’ve got the latest soap updates!
“Where’s Nelle?” #GH pic.twitter.com/RzfB11z58n
— General Hospital (@GeneralHospital) May 11, 2020
