Our faith in the law

Raymond is devastated. The cause is once more the case against Biffa. The telephone conference between the Judge, Plaintiff’s side and Defence took place on Monday afternoon. Although the Judge had given directions about documents to be disclosed, it looks as if these can be ignored with impunity. Raymond was asked what dates we would not be available for next year. I just felt like saying I have no idea whether I shall be available for any dates next year. Next year is another country.

When we realised that the transplant had not prevented the lymphoma from returning, Raymond consulted his solicitor to urge the case to be expedited. He was assured it would be wrapped up this year. I am afraid I have never thought that; it will outlive me. All that is happening is that a number of insurers and lawyers are being enriched and we are being caused immense stress but all along Ray has been told that resolution is just around the corner.

I have no faith in the law whatsoever. If you read Bleak House you can see nothing has changed in over one hundred and sixty years. It may have appeared to be a black and white case, but there is no such thing and these cases are deliberately strung out for the benefit of the legal professionals. Raymond is naturally haunted by the fact that he is the innocent party and the results of the accident have affected him physically, mentally and his ability to carry on with the work he loves.

Should we have cut our losses? In the first few months that might have been possible given the right offer, but unfortunately, the longer something like this drags on, the more you realise that the damage caused can be permanent and has not cleared up after twelve months as we might once have hoped. Raymond has a future which he must safeguard. I feel like screaming whenever the case is mentioned but I have to work to a different agenda. He gives me so much help every day that the least I can do is to listen, advise and hope that the legal profession will act in favour of fairness – just once.

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I wrote the above when I was very, very cross so I usually don’t post anything like that immediately. This morning we heard from the solicitor that there are a number of changes to our personal statements which have been suggested by the barrister. The lawyers are very good at inaction but then they want a lot of work and analysis by yesterday. Ray is at the moment doing the accounts for submission on Friday and I am in the middle of radiotherapy. The requests came in the form of an attachment and without looking at the length of the downloads I just pressed “print”. Somehow the sight of about 100 bits of paper spewing out of the printer lightened our despondency. It is a quite impossible task and we have no intention of letting it overshadow the run-up to Christmas.