[BITList] Sue, sweet Sue

[HUGH]

Colin,

The last time a lawyer threatened to take me to court I told him (in fine legal language) to go eff himself - and he did, for that was 20 years ago and I've heard nothing from him since.  The trick is to be in the right and have the ability to identify a bluffer.  It cost his client a lot of money - all it cost me was a stamp.  Just to show no hard feelings, my wife engaged the same people about 4 years back over a hole in the pavement she'd fallen down. This hole was 2" deep and about 6 feet by 2 feet, and had been there and complained of for over 2 years. One came upon it abruptly on turning a corner, as Janet did one dark winter's night.  She got a fractured hand, a very sore shoulder, and a head injury.  The case took nearly a year and the council settled out of court.  I'm not sure the hole has ever been filled in, but it's our money they're handing out to lawyers to defend the indefensible against us.  I know a lady who inquired of a lawyer about representing her interests.  The lawyer sent her a letter that, more or less, set out the terms and likely costs (£175 - £200 per hour, plus).  They charged her £230 for telling her that.  

The Dickens case is a favourite of mine.  John Fulton (1800-1854), a distant cousin of my great great grandmother, was a shoemaker in Fenwick, Ayrshire.  He taught himself various things - 4 languages for one, and the art of scientific instrument making for another.  He made a series of astronomical machines that all have vanished bar one, the Grand Orrery he completed in 1833 and exhibited round the UK (it's now in the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow).  He ended up in London with it and took employment with Robert Brettel Bate, scientific instrument maker to the Royal Mint and to Queen Victoria (he made glasses for her).  While in London he chased up the matter of the estate of his uncle, John Wilson, who had died leaving property there.  This was being administered through Chancery by a Mr Butt.  Mr Butt in Fulton's early letters was a fine man, but by the time 20 years had passed he had become a rogue and worse.  All the family got of the estate was a list of the beneficiaries, at least one such has come down in the family.  The whole was swallowed up in costs due to Mr Butt and his partners and clerks.  Dickens may well have based his tale on that case.

Hugh.
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