I overheard a conversation the other day, although diatribe would probably be a better description! A man was telling his friend, in a loud boastful voice (you know the type) that he was going to take so and so to the cleaners, he was going to sue him up and down the land and would make him regret that he ever crossed him in the first place.

I had no idea what the conversation was about and, of course, had no interest either. Why should I? I gave up listening to the problems of strangers when I ceased practicing the law a couple of years back. It did strike a chord however and I remember thinking that I hoped the guy had got plenty of money because he would certainly need it if he was going to carry out his threats successfully.

It reminded me of a print of a famous 17^th century painting that used to hang on my office wall. It is a cartoon-type picture of a cow with a thin man at one end pulling on its nose with the word “Plaintiff” written next to him. At the tail end of the cow was another thin man pulling at the tail and the word “Defendant” was written next to him. Sat on a stool by the middle section of the cow was a very large man milking the beast for all he was worth. The word next to that man was “Lawyer”.

That sums it  up nicely and, as I used to say to my clients, don’t take anybody to law unless you have first exhausted all other options and, even then, only if you have a large bank balance. Going to litigation is like going to a casino. At the end of the day there is only one winner and it sure aint the punter!