life can trip you up on a perfect day.
As lawyers, we’re told that everything comes down to a number.
It’s a secret, really. That non-lawyers shouldn’t know about. Because if they did, then the entire legal system would come crumbling down around us and no one would have any faith in justice or the judiciary.
But everything in life has a price, and everything - everything comes down to a number.
When someone wrongs us, as human beings we want to make them pay. It’s in our innate nature to seek revenge, and though while some harbour secret thoughts about enacting said revenge, others will air it in public and draw attention to their suffering - seemingly as a way of preventing the same wrongs from occurring in the future. But it’s not about that - not really, anyway. It’s all about revenge.
In criminal law, the revenge comes from seeing people convicted and sentenced, forced into jails, and if the key isn’t thrown away at least it’s locked up for a considerably long time.
The number there, is how many years. How many years is this person or persons going to pay for their crime. How many years is the state going to take away from them as punishment for what they’ve done to me, or to my child, my husband, my wife, my brother, my sister, my friend.
In civil law, that number is a dollar amount. Everything, everything comes down to a cheque. How much is it going to take to fix this? How much money am I going to take away from you, to ease the suffering you’ve inflicted on me?
Because people will sue for everything. Even things without fault or blame.
Your child gets cancer, you sue the doctor who didn’t pick it up on his yearly physical even though it may not have been there. Your child has surgery to try and remove the cancer and dies, you sue the surgeon who performs the surgery even though he explained the risks. You sue the hospital for telling you that he had a chance. You sue your husband for not taking him to the doctor sooner. You sue the taxi driver who got you there for emotional damage. You sue, because you want some kind of justice.
And in the absence of real justice, the justice of bringing back your child - you want someone else to pay.
In law school, we’re taught that everything comes down to numbers. It’s a secret, but it’s not a very well kept one. We’re taught as defendants to keep the numbers down, we’re taught as plaintiffs to keep the numbers high. That’s what law school is teaching me.
But now, now the numbers are different. They're not dollars anymore, they're percentages. The odds.
The odds that I'll live. The odds that this isn't going to be the end. The odds, they're percentages that I can't control. As a lawyer, I have a certain amount of control of the numbers. But as a patient, I have no control over the odds.
I should have been a doctor. These are the kind of numbers I should be able to control.
The Odds v My Life is a lawsuit I'm losing
So now I'm facing a different set of numbers. But I never liked maths, really
It’s a secret, really. That non-lawyers shouldn’t know about. Because if they did, then the entire legal system would come crumbling down around us and no one would have any faith in justice or the judiciary.
But everything in life has a price, and everything - everything comes down to a number.
When someone wrongs us, as human beings we want to make them pay. It’s in our innate nature to seek revenge, and though while some harbour secret thoughts about enacting said revenge, others will air it in public and draw attention to their suffering - seemingly as a way of preventing the same wrongs from occurring in the future. But it’s not about that - not really, anyway. It’s all about revenge.
In criminal law, the revenge comes from seeing people convicted and sentenced, forced into jails, and if the key isn’t thrown away at least it’s locked up for a considerably long time.
The number there, is how many years. How many years is this person or persons going to pay for their crime. How many years is the state going to take away from them as punishment for what they’ve done to me, or to my child, my husband, my wife, my brother, my sister, my friend.
In civil law, that number is a dollar amount. Everything, everything comes down to a cheque. How much is it going to take to fix this? How much money am I going to take away from you, to ease the suffering you’ve inflicted on me?
Because people will sue for everything. Even things without fault or blame.
Your child gets cancer, you sue the doctor who didn’t pick it up on his yearly physical even though it may not have been there. Your child has surgery to try and remove the cancer and dies, you sue the surgeon who performs the surgery even though he explained the risks. You sue the hospital for telling you that he had a chance. You sue your husband for not taking him to the doctor sooner. You sue the taxi driver who got you there for emotional damage. You sue, because you want some kind of justice.
And in the absence of real justice, the justice of bringing back your child - you want someone else to pay.
In law school, we’re taught that everything comes down to numbers. It’s a secret, but it’s not a very well kept one. We’re taught as defendants to keep the numbers down, we’re taught as plaintiffs to keep the numbers high. That’s what law school is teaching me.
But now, now the numbers are different. They're not dollars anymore, they're percentages. The odds.
The odds that I'll live. The odds that this isn't going to be the end. The odds, they're percentages that I can't control. As a lawyer, I have a certain amount of control of the numbers. But as a patient, I have no control over the odds.
I should have been a doctor. These are the kind of numbers I should be able to control.
The Odds v My Life is a lawsuit I'm losing
So now I'm facing a different set of numbers. But I never liked maths, really