Free Law and Peace by Tim Kevan

is because she hates him so much. But it was the other name that elicited the most surprise: that of TopFirst himself. It makes me extremely suspicious that these appointments are far from coincidence and that TopFirst is up to something, and it certainly made Claire give me a knowing look when I mentioned it to her after work this evening. The difficulty will be in working out just exactly what it is that he’s plotting.
    Let the litigation games begin.
    Â 
    Â 
    Monday 17 December 2007
    Year 2 (week 12): An offer
    Â 
    Slippery and ScandalMonger have been making hay in the last few days and they’ve now set up a website, called geriatrigation.com, to bring in more of these Moldy cases. Scandal’s whipping it up in the papers and Slippery’s doing all the admin. In the meantime I’ve picked out a couple of our better cases to lead the charge and on Wednesday we will issue proceedings. It’s then over to ScandalMonger to get it on to the front pages.
    Unsurprisingly, then, I got a visit from UpTights this afternoon.
    â€˜You do realise that this whole thing is a complete try on?’ she said.
    â€˜I presume you’re talking about my case against your lovely telecom company?’
    â€˜Of course I am, BabyB. It’s not like you’re doing any other cases that are big enough to be against me, now is it?’
    Ouch. She’s going for the patronising approach, I see.
    â€˜You’re right there, UpTights. Except I would have thought these are just straightforward personal injury actions, which are well below your usual size of case . . .’
    I tailed off and looked at her. ‘Which did make me wonder why they had instructed someone as senior as yourself. Suggests there’s more to this than meets the eye, wouldn’t you say?’
    She was slightly thrown by her former pupil answering her back so directly and she hesitated for a second before coming back with, ‘You know full well, BabyB, that if you raise such provocative issues these big companies will always take it seriously.’
    â€˜Unless of course,’ I answered, ‘there was nothing to them at all. In that case why would they waste their money?’
    She could see she was getting nowhere.
    â€˜Enough of these puerile games. I have an offer to make. If you agree not to pursue your claims any further, then my clients will not seek any costs which have been wasted thus far.’
    â€˜But why should my clients be bothered when they’re insured against your costs?’
    To that, at this stage, there was no answer and after a little more bluffing and attempts at bullying, UpTights was on her way.
    Â 
    Â 
    Tuesday 18 December 2007
    Year 2 (week 12): Arthur and Ethel
    Â 
    Today I went off to spend a little time with the two old people whose cases will be among the first ones to be issued tomorrow. They are the wonderful couple, Arthur and Ethel, who I’d met in our earlier conference: Arthur who pulls the moonies and Ethel with her bucket of water. Arthur is a small man, hunched over with age, which does give him the perfect stance to pull off quick and unexpected moonies at the drop of a hat. But beyond this idiosyncrasy, his single concern is Ethel who I discovered today he thought he might have lost to cancer some five years ago but who has since made a full recovery. Away from the silliness and mayhem that was the last conference in chambers, it really was quite moving to sit and listen to them today and to see that the strength and the stoicism they both exude is fed by a deep, underlying love.
    â€˜We’ve been married fifty-seven years this April,’ Arthur said proudly.
    â€˜And never a dull day,’ added Ethel with a real twinkle in her eye.
    â€˜We’ve had our ups and downs, I’ll grant you,’ said Arthur, ‘but I wouldn’t have made it this far without her. She’s the air that gives me life, you know.’
    â€˜Listen to