you are hereby served

the threat of a lawsuit is to the business community what the threat of withholding dessert is to a seven-year-old. that is to say that in both scenarios, the threat alone tends to be sufficient to bring about the desired outcome. and believe me, i speak from experience, on both counts.

one simple anecdote to illustrate the point, at least as far as threatening a civil action is concerned:

so a few years back a kid in one of my classes told me that she had been trying for several weeks, unsuccessfully, to obtain her final paycheque from the telemarketing firm where she had been employed for the summer. apparently, when she advised the company that she was leaving her position at the end of august, they told her that she owed the business several hundred dollars in "back taxes" which is, of course, a ridiculous proposition and one clearly designed to thwart her efforts to recover the wages that rightly belonged to her. so i decided to step in and place a phone call or two on her behalf.

when i first contacted her former supervisor and asked for an explanation as to the withheld pay, he advised me that it was none of my business and that i should do something to myself that is typically not discussed in polite circles. then he hung up on me. undeterred, i picked up the telephone once again and dialed the firm's number. but this time, before the slick sales supervisor had a chance to slam down the receiver, i quickly made it known to him that i was a former lawyer and that immediately following our conversation i would be counseling my student on how to pursue legal proceedings in order to protect her rights under the employment standards act. this time i had his attention. but boiler room joe was still sticking to his tired old story about "back taxes" being remitted to the federal government. so i told him that first i would contact canada revenue agency in order to inquire about the legitimacy of his firm's actions. then i would advise my student to file a small claims action in the appropriate venue. and then, just to be a schmuck, i would use the statement of claim as an example of how to prepare civil pleadings in my law class.

her paycheque arrived in the mail the next week.

"nobody has a kind word to say about a lawyer... until they actually need one themselves." - anonymous

heard it on the commercial for the new drew barrymore film and had no choice but to proceed accordingly:



p.s. um, you do realize that i edit my work after i publish it on my blog, and for several days thereafter, i might add. but thanks for being the world's most efficient editor.