Sunday, January 14, 2007

Our Legal System

I've not had much experience with the US judicial system, but the one experience I had was enough to sour me on it. Years ago, an acquaintance/friend finally brought charges against her abusive husband. I was summoned to appear for my testimony on a Friday for the following Monday. After 3 days of sitting around waiting, the trial finally ended without my testimony. That was 3 days of having to take vacation off of work and having absolutely no say in the matter. Didn't leave a good taste in my mouth.


Skip to 3 years ago when I rear ended a car in a turn lane with a green light. Let's just leave the story at that and say that technically I was at fault. And they sued a few months later. Almost 3 years later it is finally coming to trial. I received a letter a few days ago saying that the trial date had been set for 17 May. I emailed the lawyer to explain why I wouldn't possibly be sitting in a court room a few weeks after giving birth. So, to accommodate me, they've moved it up to 23 April. Great. I'll only be 38 weeks pregnant then. I'm sure I'll enjoy sitting for hours on end in a court room. I emailed again to explain the distinct possibility of labor or bed rest by that point but it didn't seem to phase the lawyer. He said just to keep in touch with him and he would plan on that date. As much as I would like to get out of it, the alternative is not much better as it will mean bringing an infant with me to court (since I plan to breastfeed and pumping didn't work well at all with G). Did I mention I don't care much for the legal system? Yes, I know there are worse alternatives but I sure wish this thing could have been worked out several years ago.

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Almost exactly three years ago we hired Lowe's to install a new hardwood floor throughout our entire house. Two years and 48 weeks ago we started legal proceedings to try to recover the aproximately $100k in damages they caused to our entire house. About a year ago we met a Lowe's attorney - who didn't know about our case - who told us her job was to make sure at cases against Lowe's drag through the system for four to five years before allowing anything to proceed. So far? She's right. Our legal system is joke.

Ps. I'm not on blogger, but you can find me at http://knitting.creativewares.com