Bare garden
This morning I visited the so-called ‘bear garden’ in the high courts for the first time with a case of my own. Whenever I’ve seen the place before it’s like a vision of hell with lawyers piled high all arguing aloud like some kind of terrible legal trading floor. Today though, it was completely and utterly silent. Not a lawyer in sight. Not even an opponent. Now admittedly all I was doing was handing in agreed directions, (hard days work if ever there was one) and so I guess not having an opponent was not actually a complete surprise. But what has happened to the bear garden? Is litigation coming to an end? All cases settling? For the sake of the profession, that would be a most terrible thing.
But just when I was even starting to wonder if I’d somehow got the wrong day or something, who should pass through but OldFatherTime himself. The old ex-law lord who still strolls around the Temple and also it now seems the high court. We have now met on quite a few occasions and this time he recognised me. “Ah, hello, young man. It’s rather quiet around here don’t you think?â€
“I was wondering about that myself. Do you think perhaps people have decided to stop litigating or something?â€
“Don’t worry about that young man. So long as people remain greedy, vain and proud they will continue to waste their hard-earned money in fights so complicated and expensive that only the ingenious imagination of a lawyer could ever have invented.â€
Then he looked at me with a smile before adding: “But remember young man, for every thousand meaningless cases that you churn out just for the money, there’ll be one in which you might actually make a difference.â€
I’m not sure quite how to take those kind of statistics but as he went on his way, he turned around and added: “Believe me, when you get that case you’ll know. Oh, please do pass on my very best to OldRuin.â€
October 5, 2016
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Tim Kevan ·
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Well, thanks very much BabyB. Reminding me of my experiences in the Bear Garden in the dim and distant past has quite spoiled my Friday afternoon!