Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tales from the Firm

I was reading this other blog which had a story that made me think of something that happened to me shortly after I started working at the law firm.

I answer the phone, and there's a very elderly man on the other side who proceeds to tell me that he's a war vet and he needs a lawyer. I ask a few questions and the conversation goes something like this:

"I want to sue my wife" he says.

"I'm sorry, we're a family law firm - we don't handle lawsuits".

"But she's my wife and I want to sue her. She's family!"

"Do you want to divorce her?"

"No - I just want my money back. She opened my mail and took a cheque for $20."

"I'm sorry, unless you want to get a divorce, you're going to need to find a law firm that specializes in litigation."

"Where do I find one of those?"

"You could look in the yellow pages..."

Meanwhile, I'm thinking that if I were billing for that phone call it would have cost $20, never mind that hiring a litigation lawyer is going to require a retainer of thousands of dollars...oy!

2 comments:

Devon said...

lol! too funny. :) My friend is an attorney and he just told me a similar story - an old woman called and wanted to sue her husband for 50$ on the grounds that he washed a sweater of hers and shrunk it (this having happened after she told him "for the millionth time" not to ever touch the laundry). :)

MichelleH said...

I firmly stand by my theory that people are crazy! :)