<> Today I spent a few cheery hours in the bowels of the justice system, just to see what all the fuss was about. No, I was not the defendant. Small claims court really is the peanut gallery of the justice system: no lawyers allowed, you don't want to dress too well, and it helps if you don't to talk too fancy. Because the whole proceeding is pretty informal, many of the judgments are won by default. But the fun really starts when the contestants actually show up, because then it's straight out of Judge Judy. No rules of evidence. Both sides real losers -- disorganized, disheveled, not able to think clearly, and many with thick accents or outright speech impediments. And since everything is in real-time, there are plenty of chances for one side to bushwhack the other with evidence they didn't know about. Today's court went pretty quick thanks to the no-shows. The judge was an out-of-work lawyer -- good listener and quick to size up a situation. The longest case was 5 minutes, and it was that long only because he had to question both the plaintiff and the defendant since there was almost no relevant evidence. Everybody brought paper, but the newbies just brought random paper that didn't substantiate much of anything. The questions about basic stuff -- like, can you prove that there's any actual damage? -- became murkier and murkier. At the end, he tried to send both parties away with the promise of a judgement in the mail. They didn't really understand and wanted to continue talking. The judge shook his head as he sent them off with a "have a good day." The next case was a dentist. suing a father who wouldn't pay his daughter's dental bills because she was over 18. What kind of a father is this? This particular dentist had five cases before the court today. Which out for dentists! My case? A simple disagreement over stock options that a client is trying to stiff me on. My performance? Flawless, of course...but the legalities are grey, with two contracts that contradict each other. After 2 minutes, my day in court was over. The judge said his answer will come in the mail...but at least he wasn't shaking his head. . David Taber www.taberconsulting.com +1-650-326-2626 (8AM-7PM PST [GMT-8]) Yahoo-AIM-MSN-Skype IM ID: TaberConsulting blog: www.taberconsulting.com/download/archives.htm 555 Bryant Street, Suite 789 Palo Alto, CA 94301 USA This message and its attachments are privileged information intended only for the addressees named above. This email may contain copyrighted or confidential information covered under non-disclosure agreement. If you are not the intended recipient, you must immediately delete this message: retaining, disclosing, copying, or distributing this message, or taking action based on it, is prohibited by law. The sender believes that this message and original attachments were free of viruses, worms, Trojan horses, or malicious code when sent. However, this message or its attachments could have been infected during transmission or forwarding. By reading this message or opening any attachments, the recipient accepts full responsibility for taking protective and remedial action about viruses and other defects. The sender is not liable for any loss or damage arising in any way from this message or its attachments.