Originally from: Susan Staunton
                        

Author wrote:
Surely Janet Hughes must look to her lawyers for compensation for what was
clearly very bad advice. Lawyers being what they are, (the second oldest
profession after prostitution) , take all your money and when the money is
gone they slink off like thieves in the night.

How right you are Bill. I have enormous sympathy for Janet, but have always heeded the words of a solicitor I worked for for a number of years (who in fact switched from litigation to conveyancing purely because she felt the former was such a nasty way to make a living):

1. Never engage in the legal process on a point of principle, but only on a matter of sound legal precedent 2. Never engage in the legal process without first assuming that the matter will be carried through to its limit by your opponent 3. Never engage in the legal process unless you want to make others very rich and yourself very poor 4. Never engage in the legal process on the back of other peoples' nebulous promises to "help you out" if you should lose because, people being what they are, they won't!!

Litigation solicitors are not interested in your passion for a cause or of the emotional turmoil you might be going through as a result, but in the business of job justification every bit as much as those reviled scientists we spoke of a few weeks back – and barristers love a case they can grandstand in. All of which is a very sad indictment of the world we live in rather than a criticism in any way of Janet's motives.