A story from an acquaintance that I realize is a little off topic for mgtow.
“After working twenty years in engineering a recession in my niche area hit. I ended up joining a private company in California specialising in handing some bureaucratic function of government. This private company had a tiny engineering department which amounted to 2% of the company. It was more a vanity unit for one high ranking director. The job I took was more of a poisoned chalice than anything.
The company at one point transferred some of its workers to the engineering department. They had no engineering qualifications or real world experience. So what happened? Well they siphoned off large salaries and resigned en masse shortly before the deadline! That’s when I was hired.
I spent most of my time frustrated at this company. Successful projects were sold off to clients at a tiny fraction of their real worth. Insane projects with design input from unqualified people with no common sense weren’t thrown away, but were given to competent people only to waste their time. Workers told me in private they knew the designs were bad, but refused to tell the director as they didn’t want to offend. One worker wrecked his own project and then moved on to wreck another project as he was given a critical, but small, part to do. This company could have been handed gold on a plate and they would still manage to trash it.
Due to the out-of-date and old equipment, I got injured at work one day. I had to leave the company. I would have sued them, but I really didn’t want anything more to do with this company. Plus I thought it might ruin my reference from them. I just wanted to try to get better with no stress. Fortunately all many, many months I made a full recovery.
I decided to go back to university and start up my own small business. Almost three years later, I had a small business running and was in the middle of a university assignment. Shortly afterwards I was due to sit university examinations.
I then got a letter from a lawyer acting from this company telling me they would shortly take me to court for a variety of offences. The letter had no evidence it in whatsoever. No real explanations of the law to hand. It was just a huge pile of vaguely worded threats of how they would ruin my life via court action. I believe they were trying to use some intellectual property law. My business was in a different area to the company and I had no contact with these people for 3 years. Our clients and customers were totally different.
The irony had me shocked. The company had practically shut down its engineering division and from what I heard they couldn’t even get a working product out the door. How could a defunct division of a company with no working project, sue someone with a working product? How can a working product infringe the intellectual property of a different product which doesn’t even work?
They had a list of demands. They wanted my whole business turned over to them, lock, stock and barrell!
I went to a lawyer. He didn’t think their case would ever go to court. Anyway the weeks and months rolled by. I found I could no longer get hold of my lawyer to talk to. He was always out of the office. My lawyer sent a letter back to the other side. We just got silence back. Six months later my lawyer eventually told me the other side had no time to pursue the matter. It was just left at that.
Well the time has gone into years now. My lawyer had his practice closed down by a regulatory body as one of his other clients complained about him. The other side’s lawyer closed his practice down.
Due to the stress at the time I told the university to cancel my examinations.
I was greatly upset by this. I was surprised the old company would sue me given they injured me quite badly. I was surprised any lawyer would agree to take up their case against me. I made me think people just don’t care.
When I feel blue I think back to this. I realize this is bad. In the end nothing happened. The other side just dropped the case and couldn’t be bothered to tell us in any sensible and timely manner. I cancelled my exams for nothing.
I think it shows lawyers just take up cases regardless of their merit to get a bit of money in. I have no idea what the old company was trying to do. They wanted to make up for their lack of evidence, with threats and bluff. I’m surprised this sort of thing is allowed. Their letter to me was so over-the-top, it is difficult to see how they could have gone further with it.
Perhaps a key point is to realize lawyers make up for lack of evidence, by threats and bluff. It is important to keep your cool. Your job is to point to the lack of evidence or the problems with their evidence. Your job is not to educate the other side or to provide them with new information. As some general advice, never say anything that could allow them to put their hooks into it or twist it.”
PistolPete 3 years, 1 month ago.
