Pain in the wide variety of its forms.

[captainsblog]

As with last week, court this morning was fine and short once the parade finally got to me, but there was quite a path of humanity which had to be clear-cut before that could happen. Once again, a pro se party was there, on her own (which, duh, is what "pro se" means), and was totally clueless about the papers she'd received in the mail from her bankruptcy trustee.

Turns out she had the right to sue somebody at the time she filed, in the whirlwind of cases in mid-October of 2005 right before the bankruptcy laws changed, and her "lawyer" for this purpose never bothered to list that fact, or, more importantly, to claim a portion of the proceeds of that lawsuit as "exempt." Thus, today's result was a trustee asking to have the entire amount of her personal injury settlement be paid to her accident lawyer and to her creditors, not a penny to her.

The judge was patient and sympathetic, but made clear to her that unless she claimed part of the proceeds in the right way and in a timely manner, that is exactly what would happen. She told him her original lawyer had stopped representing her, but that another attorney (who none of us had ever heard of, although she does have a listing in the bar directory) had agreed to "take the case" sometime in 2006. This barrister did not show up today, nor has she returned any number of calls from the client or the trustee about a bunch of other issues in the lady's case.

The judge put off the decision for a few weeks, and sent her on her way. I could just tell there was no chance she would come close to finding it, so I left when she and a companion did, and sure enough, when the elevator stopped at the floor below the courtroom where the forms are filed, she made no move to get off. I pointed them to where the office was, then told her I'd get her the forms and give her some general instructions on what the court was looking for on those forms, but that I couldn't formally represent her as long as she had other counsel of record.

After my case was over and wishing her luck, I saw her trustee, who tipped me off about how much trouble lay ahead for anyone trying to represent this woman. I doubt if I will, but I could not have left that building today without doing SOMETHING to make the rest of the world think that we're not a bunch of moneygrubbing cranky shysters.

At least not all the time, anyway.

----

Since coming home, I've been witnessing a far different form of pain secondhand:

Tasha, our older dog, has been limping pretty severely. Eleanor had left for work by the time I got back, so I don't know if she'd noticed anything, and I've checked all of her paws for anything easy and  Androcles-like, to no avail. She doesn't seem to be in pain except when moving, and she's had arthritic-like bouts before for a day or so, which leads us to want to just wait it out for the time being and pray for the best.

Comments

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

That was very nice of you cap'n, and I hope she took your advice.

Hope Tasha is just feeling a bit of arthritis due to the cold and wind, and I hope she is feeling better soon.