THE LEGAL ALTERNATIVE by Ed Gottschlich CHAPTER I

It was chilly that May morning in 1974. But then it was always chilly May mornings in Laguna Beach. Jessie was 24 years old and no longer had the hard firm body of a teen. Not that she was fat, but she had matured in all of the places that enables any member of the species to distinguish the beauty of the matured female from that of her younger sister.. Her eyes, bright blue, no longer danced with the exuberance of the very young. They were softer now, more relaxed. You could almost detect the passage of 50,000 pages of textbook wisdom that had passed through them the past five years. Her mouth didn't break into that cute impish grin that was so natural in high school . Now, her smile was less boisterous, less frequent, but one could sense from the full red lips, just as sincere. She seemed to have been subdued by some force, a sadness there that she struggled to keep below the surface. As she jogged along the beach she let---no encouraged her mind to wander. This was going to be a big day in her life and she would make one of the big decisions in it, but for now she wanted to cleanse her very spirit. Jogging on the beach had always been therapeutic 1

for her. Especially early in the morning with the changing mood of the ocean. Back east, the seasons changed, but out here only the ocean was true to the calendar. She had enjoyed her jog on the beach long before it became the 'in' thing to do. There's Corky Green. "Hi Corky. How're the waves?" Poor Corky, he's been riding those same waves at Brooks as long as I can remember. He grew up along the beach with Hobie, Clark, fletch---they all went on to make big money in the surfing industry---but not Corky. Course he probably thinks he's the lucky one. They might have made money, but he's the only one still surfing Brooks Street waves every day. Jessie surfed herself when she was growing up, as life became more demanding of her time, the most she could squeeze out was a quick jog on the sand. The surfers often glanced at her between waves, but in the

unwritten code of the real beach people, each did his own thing and never interfered with another. Her mind wandered to the tourists. So obvious in their bright shirts and gaudy bermudas. It was early in the morning as well as cool, but there they were sticking their feet in the surf and screaming, It's cold." They were going to get their money's worth even 2

if it killed them. Jessie thought, "What a crime the way travel agents lie to their customers about the places they send them. Southern California has more consistent, predictable weather than any place in the world. In May, the Pacific Ocean is 60 degrees and the inland California deserts heat to 100 degrees. As the cool ocean air moves in to fill the hot air pocket rising over the inland deserts, the beaches turn cold and foggy." "Oh well," she hoped, "maybe they will go home and tell their friends to stay away from California." For some reason her thoughts turned to her childhood. Happiness had meant the beach in those days too. She had not been a precocious child. If anything, she had been slow in development in her earliest years. "Daddy's girl" is what Sheila, her mother, had said. Whenever life had gotten too complicated for her little mind to cope, she knew she could find solace in her daddy's lap. Perhaps it was this cocoon of protection that primed that little brain to blossom so well in future years. Sheila probably helped Jessie develop a healthy competition in her behavior. A competition with herself. When her little brother, Kevin, arrived in the 3

family, she found that she had to share her protective cocoon with him. However, Sheila redirected Jessie s initial resentment into more positive directions. Together they tackled the new mothering chores, each day trying to do better and better. By the time she reached high school, the habits of organization, diligence, and hard work were ingrained. School work became a snap and good grades the rule. Those best of all academic traits

were carried over into college and made her as successful there as she had been in high school. That was it. She had run her usual course---all the way to Seal Rocks and back. Better get up the hill to her folk's place and get ready for her interview. Laguna Beach was about 50 miles from downtown Los Angeles where the law offices of Blanchard, Foremost, Keen, and Sarchet were located. That firm occupied the top floors of the Richfield Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Los Angeles. Seventy lawyers made the firm one of the largest in California. They had sent John Sarchet himself, one of the partners no less, to interview Jessie at Stanford Law School. Her records put her in the top 10 percent of the Law School's class of 1974, and John Sarchet had assured her that passing the California Bar Exam was a foregone conclusion. She didn't like John Sarchet. He was smooth---the 4

picture perfect trial lawyer. Tall, handsome, his self assurance bordered on the arrogant---"too smooth" for Jessie's tastes. He had done a fantastic selling job for B.F.K.& S. He told her of the diversity of the firm, the pool of talent available to their customers, their outstanding success rate. All of these things she had already known about B.F.K.& S., but there was something that made his presentation---too smooth. He had obviously done, or had someone do, research on Jessie's likes, dislikes, dreams, goals---everything about her. Somehow that was flattering, but the way he used that information was---well, too smooth. At any rate, she had accepted his invitation to visit the firm, and she'd better get back up the mountain. Her bicycle was parked at the real estate office on Coast Highway where her parents had purchased their home many years earlier. Jessie rode up Bluebird Canyon Drive, a steep one lane road up the hills above the town. She remembered the challenge Bluebird Canyon gave her years ago. She used to tell herself she could never grow up without riding her bike all the way to the top. She had always

challenged herself-more even than her school teachers-or even her parents had. She came into the house from the garage on the 5

upper level. One of the reasons she loved Laguna so, was this house where she grew up. It had a 180 degree view of the ocean below, but backed up to the mountains. She remembered the skunks, racoons, possums, coyotes, and deer that frequented the backyard before they started building houses on every possible site. She guessed every new generation lamented the loss of its wildlife. Her dad said that the largest grizzly bears on earth roamed these same hills before the white men came. She showered and dressed in her brown gabardine business suit. "Lawyer clothes," she thought to herself. "Well I might as well get used to them." She hated the long drive to Los Angeles. John Sarchet had suggested that they meet at B.F.K.& S. at 9 A.M, but Jessie had reminded him that she could avoid the morning crush on the freeway if they met at eleven. Not the best way to impress your prospective employer, but Jessie was not enthusiastic about this particular job . No way could she drive this every day, and there was no place close to downtown L.A. that she felt was livable. Jessie hadn't given a lot of thought to just where she would like to work and acting nonchalant about one of the most prestigious law firms in the state gave her a twinge of conscience. She remembered some of her 6 classmates at Stanford saying they would give their right arms for the opportunity to start with a firm like B.F.K.& S. She parked in the basement garage of the Richfield Tower and took the elevator to the 54th floor. when the door opened there was a world class reception room. The furniture, the carpet, the decoration. were exquisite. She crossed to the receptionist and said, "Jessie Meir to see John Sarchet." The receptionist seemed to leap into action, calling several numbers in succession,then fairly dancing around the desk to ask Jessie if she could get her anything. Before Jessie could answer, a young handsome black lawyer type was offering his hand, introducing himself and suggesting that he be allowed to escort her to John Sarchet's office. He was Rodney Stapp, the

newest lawyer in the firm. "So new," he said, "I don't even have my name on the stationery yet." They had to get on the elevator again and go up two more floors to Sarchet's office. "Up above the smog," Rodney said. She liked his sense of humor. He told Jessie that he came from a small midwestern town, bungled his way through law school and took the first job he could find in the big city. Jessie didn't believe a word of what he said--she knew B.F.K.& S. was not in the habit of hiring anyone who had bungled his way through law school. They stepped off of the elevator, walked down a lavishly decorated hallway and into the most beautiful office Jessie had ever seen. Deep pile grey carpet, mauve walls adorned with impressionist works of art, and all highlighted with chrome and glass furnishings. Over in one corner on a polished wood pedestal stood a magnificent brass sculpture of a hawk. Remingtons were tastefully placed on several glass table tops. John Sarchet greeted her graciously and introduced her to the others in the room. There was Todd Logan, B.F.K.& S's expert on tax law, Scott Nelrick, head of the trial lawyers division of the firm, Linda Smyrk, Scotts right hand man, and because 'Jessie was the firms number one draft pick from this years graduating class', the head of the firm, Morgan Blanchard. "Morgan does not usually greet our job candidates in person," Sarchet said ingratiatingly. Mr. Blanchard did not look as if he would live through too many greetings, Jessie thought. He looks 100 years old. what she said was, "So nice to meet you all, I feel flattered." Sarchet said, "I promised Mr. Blanchard, Todd and Scott that I would get them right back to their busy schedule, if they would come in and greet you. Linda and Rodney are going to stay, and I hope persuade you that B.F.K.& S. is the best place for you to begin your practice of law." Jessie said, "goodbye and thanks", to the departing lawyers and returned to Linda, Rodney, and Sarchet who were having coffee around a gorgeous glass coffee table 56 floors above downtown Los Angeles. John said, "I thought I would give you a chance to ask us any preliminary questions you might have now, then Linda and Rodney can take you on a tour of the firm and maybe explain their reasons for joining our happy family--without any brass around--and finally we'll all go over to the Bounaventure Hotel for lunch. How does that sound?" Jessie said that she thought that was fine and she

would like to reserve her questions for later--"Except for one, she said. "Does Mr. Blanchard still practice?" They all laughed, and Sarchet replied, "he's 68 years old--this company is his baby. He has always treated us like his children. Linda here is the first female lawyer this firm has ever employed. We hope we can persuade you to be the second. Anyway I'm just 9

rambling.To answer your question, no, Mr. Blanchard isn't as active as he once was, but yes, he still works on cases. If that is the only question you have, I m getting off easy. why don't you young people give the place a thorough checking. Linda, Rodney, answer all of Jessie's questions and I'll meet you back here at 12:30." "Jessie, what would you like to see first?" Rodney asked when Sarchet had gone. "Oh, I don't know. I can always look at law libraries and computers, I think I would like to sit here and discuss your reasons for choosing this job. I haven't said anything to Sarchet yet, but B.F.K.& S. is not my idea of a company I would like to devote my life to." "Nor I," Linda said. "Listen, I chose this place as the quickest way to the big bucks. My dad says the days of the get rich quick lawyers are limited. Right now anyone who has passed the bar has a license to steal. The public has gone litigation crazy and we can pretty well write our own paychecks. But daddy tells his trial lawyer buddies that he and a few others can hold back reform only a little while longer." "who is your father?" Rodney broke in. "Haven't you heard of state 10

senator Byron Smyrk of Illinois? Whatever the big houses don't control in Illinois--Senator Smyrk does. Excuse me Linda. I hope you don't mind my saying that." "Not at all It's certainly true." "I've heard of Senator Smyrk" Jessie said. "So you're his daughter?" "How do you think I got this job?" Linda asked.

"My daddy and old man Blanchard go way back. In fact Mr. Blanchard hired my dad right out of law school. They became partners and worked together right up to the time my dad went into politics and Mr. Blanchard moved the firm to California. As soon as I got my degree from Yale, Mr. Blanchard brought me out here to be his token woman." "That might have been his reason at first," Rodney said, "but from what I ve heard, if the firm ever got in trouble the other partners would go before you would." "Thank you for saying that. Actually, Sarchet is a master at utilizing me on cases where a female has a distinct advantage." "Especially a female with your killer instincts." Jessie broke in, "what did your father mean by--He and a few others can't hold back reform much longer?" "Daddy is from a safe district in Illinois. He has been re-elected by a landslide in the past six 11 elections. That kind of seniority plus his own killer instincts--he was the best trial lawyer in Illinois before he went to the legislature--has placed him in the position of choosing the members of the Judiciary Committee. Naturally he appoints only trial lawyers like himself. They guarantee that any legislation restrictive to lawyers never reaches the floor of the senate." "What about the Assembly?" That s the beauty of this whole thing---you only have to control one body and the entire legislative process is stymied. Only a few other state legislators have this power. In California it s Billie Green. Anyway, my dad feels that eventually the people are going to bypass the legislature--especially in the states with constitutional amendment procedure--and make changes in the law." "What kind of changes?" "There are a lot of kooks out there trying to practice law without a license. They call thmselves independent paralegals. --not like the paralegals we have here in the office assisting us. These are independents who study for a few months on something like divorce law or bankruptcy, and then help people fill out their own legal forms without a lawyer. There 12

are actually lawyers out there who are writing 'do it yourself' law books for the people. Since we lawyers have, for all practical purposes, control of courts and the legislatures we have been able to put a stop to this nonsense for years now. But daddy feels that with the terrible crush of lawyers flooding out of every podunk law school in the country, that people are being overwhelmed by bills from lawyers. This country already has one lawyer for every 250 people. That's 50 times the number Japan or most any other country has. If it weren t for the absolute monopoly we have, the pressure of too many bodies pursuing the same bucks could cause a fee war. For the most part it is a few strategically placed legislators like my father that have prevented this very thing. Actually, my father has bottled up a bill to increase the limits on cases in Small Claims Courts for the past several years now." "You make us lawyers sound like mercenaries sucking the life out of the public." Rodney said, "Well?" "We might be, I don't know. But, I for one didn't spend 18 years of my life in school in order to graduate into charity work--and starve in the bargain. Right now we are in position to earn ourselves a lot of money and possibly that opportunity is going to be snatched out 13

from under us. I say go for the bucks now and if you want to do charity work in the future, you can do it comfortably." "Wow!" Jeusie said, "I knew I wasn't going to win many humanitarian awards in the legal profession, and that most people have negative feelings about lawyers--wasn't it Shakespeare who said, "First we ll kill all the lawyers. But I didn't realize I would face the stark reality on my first interview. Rodney do you feel this way too?" "I don't think I'm as committed to making money as Linda. But yes, I had to face essentially the same decision. I could go back to Detroit and help the people where I grew up--and I might do that some day. But after suffering through that miserable ghetto and then being selected as the token black for that fancy eastern prep school, I promised myself that I would never go back to poverty. Besides, I worked too hard at Harvard studying corporate law to blow it all on legal battles about food stamps and rent disputes. "Didn't you just tell me in the elevator that you came from a small Midwest town and bungled your way

through law school? Detroit doesn't sound like a small Midwest town and I don't think too many bungle their way through Harvard." 14

"Bungled his way through?" Linda laughed. "He was in the top 5% of his class-- No one in the past 10 years has started here without that." "Well one of my profs was from Nairobi.----Shouldn't we do at least a quicky through tour for the boss's Sake?"

walk

"Oh, I'm all for a tour," Jessie said. "It's just that my mind won't be made up on the basis of any tour. I wouldn't trade the past 20 minutes for 50 tours. I appreciate your honesty" "Probably too honest," Linda admitted. "Please don't tell Sarchet what we said--not that we said anything that he doesn't know. But I've got a feeling that this place doesn't fit your ideals and if you don't join the firm, I wouldn't want to take the blame." "Good point," Rodney said. "All the more reason for our psuedo tour . Jessie, in the interest of full disclosure and just in case Sarchet gives you a written quiz, I'll describe this floor. All the top brass have their fancy offices here. I would show them to you, but they are probably all out playing golf. Now, let's go back down to 54. That's where the computers and the library are. It's almost 12:00." They all blinked as their eyes made the adjustment from the brightness of the picture window to the more 15

dim hallway. I ll drive," Rodney said as they stepped into the elevator. I d hate for us to get lost on the way down." They got off the elevator at the 54th floor. "This is the reception area where we began an hour ago," Rodney explained. "The upper two floors are mostly offices and conference rooms. The library is down this hall, and the new computer room is behind the reception area. We also have more offices for the junior members of the firm, as well as deposition rooms, conference rooms, etc. on the two floors below us. What's your pleasure?"

"I've practically lived in libraries for most of my school years," Jessie said. "Let's take a quick run through yours, and then I would like to see your computer. The computer at school was beginning to make much a big impact on learning. And, of course, we have heard all of the predictions of how they will change law offices--especially for the large firms.' "O.K. here's the library. You can see we have enough books to satisfy even the most demanding of practitioners ." Linda broke in, "While I'm here I would like to get a couple references for a case I'm working on. 16 Don t wait for me--if I can t catch up with you, I'll see you back at Sarchet's. office." "Right," Rodney said. "Jessie, the computer room is right down this way. What you said about the computer is sure true. No one knows for sure how much help these things will be to the legal profession. We've had this I.B.M. 1401 since 1969, but, I'm told that it's been primarily used for record keeping. It kept track of the billing, banking, payroll--those kind of things. But now"----he went through a door where several workmen were moving big washing machine like consoles around---"this new baby has 1000 times the capability of the old 1401. They say that some day soon---maybe by 1978---we can have terminals right on our desks tied in to this thing. Eventually, when the software becomes available, we may be able to bring the whole library to our desks." "I can see the advantages of working in a firm that is providing the latest technology," Jessie said. "At Stanford we were trained in the state of the art, and it would be a shame to lose that edge we might have on the old timers in the profession. Heaven knows they have enough advantages over us." "You're right there," Rodney echoed, "and they certainly flaunt their advantages. It's about time we 17

went back to Sarchet's office. I think Linda will probably meet us there. They took the elevator back to 56th floor, and walked down to Sarchet's office. Sarchet and Linda were waiting for them. "Let's go across the street to the Bounaventure, have lunch, and then we can finish our business , Sarchet said as he led the way out the door.

After they finished eating---Jessie had had a most delicious crab salad, Rodney had Salmon flouuse, and Linda and Sarchet had Cordon Bia, they continued their discussion of Jessie's possible future at B.F.K.& S. Over their last glass of wine, Sarchet was saying, "I hope Linda and Rodney did justice to our operation---no pun intended---because I have here the proverbial 'opportunity that comes along once in a lifetime'. I'm sure that their tour did not include a look at our company books, but I can assure you B.F.K.& S. is doing very well. However, you will get many offers from law firms doing very well. Your availability at this time just happens to coincide with the biggest move B.F.K.& S. has made since Morgan Bianchard brought the entire operation here from Illinois. We are going to open a new branch office in Orange County, and I have been appointed to head that 18 new office." Linda said, "That's news to me." "Me too," echoed Rodney. "Orange County is the fastest growing new metropolitan area in California. But more important than mere population growth is the large number of financial giants that are in the process of locating there. This company feels strongly enough about Orange County's future that we are prepared to make a sizeable commitment immediately. As a branch office we will have direct access to all the facilities at B.F.K.& S. However, I have been promised the complete autonomy to run the office as I see fit. So far, I have chosen Larry flotts from the corporation law department as my assistant and I'm hoping, Jessie, you will agree to be my other staff lawyer." A low whistle emanated from the direction of Rodney. "of course, we will have a complete office staff, and our first order of business will be to select a top-notch location. How about it Jessie?" For the first time that day, she found herself at a loss for words. Sarchet waited for a moment, and then continued. "It's not often someone right out of lav school gets the 19 opportunity to help eutablish a new entity for a firm with the reputation of B.F.K.& S."

Jessie sat wide eyed for a moment just looking at Sarchet, and then said almost inaudibly, "Linda and Rodney will confirm that I had all but decided to politely refuse your kind offer to join this firm. But you have just demolished my main argument." "what was that?" "I want to locate close to Laguna Beach." Sarchet rolled back his head and laughed, "I personally travelled all the way to Stanford to interview you, I assigned two of our best new talents to guide you and cajole you, I even wined you and dined you, after a fashion, and after all that, the best thing I had going for me was the fact that we are moving close to Laguna Beach?" They all joined in his laughter. This relieved the tension and Rodney said, "The best laid plans are often rent assunder." "Is Newport within your coimmute plans, Jessie?" Sarchet finally asked. Jessie was serious again. "I didn't mean to give the impression that that was my only criteria for a new job. I sound pretty shallow. I'm extremely impressed with B.F.K.& S. This new development has totally 20

flattered me. Of course Newport would be a fabulous location for me, but if you don't mind I need to rethink all of my criteria." Rodney came to her rescue with, "Jessie, you're not the only one that's flustered---Boss, I'm stunned by your surprise announcement." Sarachet looked up suddenly, "Please remember that everything said here is in strictest confidence for the time being. The only ones who know anything about this are the board of directors." "We understand," Linda said. Sarchet continued, "Jessie, I hadn't expected that what I said here would catch you so undecided. Of course in my mind, I had pictured you as leaning our direction and all I needed to do was offer you the coup de grau and you would fall into the fold. However, I would be happy if you would take the offer home and sleep on it. We don't want you to make the wrong decision." "Thank you, Mr. Sarchet."

"John." "Thank you John. I would appreciate more time. That's very considerate of you." "O.K., shall we say by the end of the week? Why don't we go back to my office and 21

"If lt s all the same," Jessie interrupted, "I would like to leave now to beat the home-bound traffic. I have a long way to go, and I'm sure I've taken enough of your time." By all means. We'll walk you across the street to your car." Jessie had a lot of time to think on her way back to Laguna. A sigalert on the radio said that a semi trailer truck had jackknifed on the freeway in Anaheim. So Jessie turned the radio off and reviewed the day's remarkable developments while she sat in bumper to bumper traffic for an hour and a half. 22 CHAPTER II

Back in the early 1960's, Jessie's dad was employed by a large bicycle manufacturer. Mel Meir could be described as a self-made man, except that would ignore the enormous. help that he had had from Sheila, his wife. The two of them were a team from the day they met at Fullerton Jr. College. Mel had been in the army in Korea and his discharge had come one week too late to join the spring semester at U.C.L.A. Therefore, he decided to take some refresher courses in math at Fullerton. He met Sheila out in the quad during a break. If ever there was love at first sight, this was it. She was blonde, blue eyed with a knockout figure. He was 2 inches taller, with a stocky build and long wavy black hair. Within a year, they were married, and living in an apartment in Westwood while Sheila worked in a bank putting Mel through school. Shortly after Jack Kennedy was assassinated, and before the awful involvement in Viet Nam, Sheila and Mel bought a house in Laguna Beach. It was high on a hill,

hard to get to, and terribly expensive at $21,000. At 23 least, $21,000 seemed terribly expensive back then. But the owners were willing to carry the paper since by this time, Mel was earning a good salary. He was a production engineer, which was the reason the bicycle manufacturer had hired him originally. He had been called in to redesign their production line. In the course of his association with the company, he had become very close to the vice president in charge of production. Between the two of them, they overcame the quality problems, increased the output and cut the unit cost. "You can't do much better than that," Brad Marks, the vice president said. "Now that we've got the bicycle line under control, I hope I can persuade you to help us with one other problem, Mel." "What's that, Brad?" "Well, I know this bicycle thing took longer than we expected and I promised that if you worked us into your busy schedule' we would get you back to your other clients right away, but something unexpected has come up. We've been working on a new project and have hit a snag." "What's your new project?" "This skateboard fad seems to come along about every six or seven years, and when it does, it overwhelms the manufacturers of the truck.." "What are the trucks?" "That is the metal part that attaches to the bottom of the board. It s an aluminum casting with a pivot point and is usually drilled through and a steel axle pressed in. It's the reason a skateboard works When the rider tilts the board, the pivot point causes the wheels to change the direction of the roll. Without the trucks, the board would not be steerable." "I understand. What's the problem then?" "This truck was invented by the roller skate industry and is used by all of the roller skate manufacturers. They service a small, fairly stable, clientele, namely the roller rinks, sporting goods stores and others that sell roller skates to the public. It's a nice industry, with steady growth year by year. Kinda like our bicycle industry. No wild fluctuations in the market. However, every so often, the kids get the skateboard bug and go out and buy out everyones

inventory of skate trucks." "Why don't the manufacturers build more? Sounds like a good opportunity to sell product." "That's occurred to us also, but the problem is not as simple as it seems. This is where you come in." "OH, OH!" It s easy to make a skateboard deck.. It's even easy to step up the assembly of the entire board. The problem, like I said before, is where do all these skate trucks suddenly come from? They're usually sand cast out of pot metal or aluminum, then they're drilled and the axle pressed in, then the wheels are mounted and they are ready to put on the skateboard. The wheel makers have no trouble turning out all the necessary wheels , and I'm sure you know the metal castings can be turned out by the millions. Where the problem comes in is the drilling and pressing of all the axles into the casting. We've been in touch with several skate truck manufacturers who say that they are not going to invest in a large number of new drill presses and hire the additional operators needed for a flash in the pan thing like skateboarding We've been contacted by several distributors and retailers who would buy skate trucks from us if we could manufacture them, but if the present imaufacturers are unwilling to try, maybe we would be crazy to think we could do better. Can you help us?" Mel thought for a moment, then said, "Well, it's obvious to me from the work I've already done here that you have all the facilities necessary for that kind of manufacture. You already do aluminum castings, you have 26 an axle machine, and you certainly have access to all the nuts, bolts, and screws necessary. That s what we felt. But can we solve the problem of the wildly fluctuating numbers? We don't have any drill presses that are not in use and like those other guys, can't afford to go out and invest in a large number of presses, use them for one year, and then let them gather dust for six years." Mel said, "It's solving little problems like this, and satisfying customer needs, that makes a company succeed. Let me put my mind on this and I'll get back to you with some facts and figures on what you might be able to do." "Like I said before, you can't do much better than that. We figured if anyone could help us with this thing, you could." "O.K., but give me at least a week. I've got to get out of here now and get back to those neglected clients,of mine. I'll give you a call next week."

"So long Mel and thanks. Say hello to Sheila for me." Mel left and headed out toward his car in the parking lot thinking, 'a guy has to be crazy to spend his adult life worrying about bicycles and skateboards'. When he got home, he showered, put on his favorite old sweat pants and tee shirt, stopped by the fridge for a beer and went out on the porch where his wife Sheila was reading. "HI honey," Sheila greeted, "Have a tough day?" "Naw not bad. The traffic's sure thick down in Laguna though." The town was built on the side of the mountains where they sloped down to the beach. For years the only way in or out had been Laguna Canyon a 1000 foot deep slash right through those mountains. It was the mountains running into the ocean that gave Laguna its rugged rocky coastline, interspersed with small picturesque sandy beaches. When they completed the portion of Highway 1, California's coastal route, through Laguna, there were .three access routes. Coast Highway to the north, Coast Highway to the south, and Laguna Canyon Road to the east. That made things pretty conjested on beautiful summer days like this, when people left the heat of the inland cities and headed for Laguna' s cool beaches. "The insurance man was here this afternoon," Sheila said. "Trying to sell us more insurance?" "No. I had sent the forms in for Kevins broken hand and forgot to sign the main one. The young man's 28 name was Jim and he was just hired by Blue Cross. I guess he wanted to make a good impression on us as our new agent. Anyway, we were having lemonade down in the glass room when he said something that struck me funny." "What did he say?" "Well you know how many times we've had your associates here from back east in the winter time and they're always amazed that it s warm enough to have the doors and windows all open? Well this young man is from Phoenix, and suddenly he looks up and says, "I can't believe it, its August and you've got all the doors and windows open." Mel laughed and said, "sometimes we forget how lucky we are to have weather like this all year around."

"The weather is O.K. My problem is, everytime I get a little free time to sit out on the porch, the doorbell rings, or the phone rings, or---" "Hi mom, hi dad." Jessie said as she came bounding through the open sliding glass door. At this time, Jessie had been your typically boisterous teenager. "See." Sheila said. "See what?" Jessie asked. "Oh nothing, Just a private Joke between your father and me. How's the beach?" 29

"The beach was great--the water is at least 75 degrees and there was a south swell running. Little brother got caught in a riptide." "A riptide?" Sheila gasped. "Yeh, no big deal. The life guard swam out to him, but Kevin had already swum up the beach, gotten out of the rip, and was heading in before the life guard got to him. All the other 15 year olds were making fun of him. I wouldn't say anything to him, he's already embarrassed." "You bet I'll say something to him. I'll"---"No, Sheila," Mel said. "Anyone can get caught in a riptide. When the big waves come pouring in, that water has to go someplace. The rips are iust all that water forming a river back out to sea. If you swim in the ocean, sooner or later you'll get caught in one--the important thing is that Kevin knew just what to do. He's a very good swimer and he's very safe out there, I've watched him." "I know, but I still worry." "Well try not to. I've taught the kids that the ocean is dangerous and to be respected. Kevin proved that he knows what to do in an emergency. His pride is hurt because the life guard had to come out and the other kids laughed at him. I'll try 30

to explain to him that the life guard was just doing his job--that everyone at the beach is not as safe or as good a swimmer as he is." "I know that the three of you are safe swimmers, but that ocean is so full of dangers, I can't help but worry. Oh, well to change the subject, Jessie, Mr. Finewick called." "School? This time of year?" "Yes. He's the drama teacher at your high school--" "I know, mother." "The festival of Arts called him. They need someone to fill in at the festival for the last week and he wondered if you would be interested." The Festival of Arts is an organization of townspeople who have presented local people portraying life size replicas of favous paintings. The show started with a few locals in 1932, and has gradually, over the rears grown larger md larger. For the past 25 years, It has sold out the 2700 seat Irvine Bowl in Laguna Canyon every night for 51 consecutive nights. It is the closest thing to 'World Famous' that the little town of Laguna Beach has to offer. "I'd love to help out, mother, but that's the week we are going to Shasta, and John has asked me to go to the Pageant the Friday before we leave." "You give him a call and explain. His number is there by the phone." Sheila turned to Mel, "we are going to Shasta that week aren't we?" I'm trying my best to get caught up. Brad Marks and I finished the bicycle line today, and on my way out he asked me to help him with another problem." "If you don't take those kids water skiing, you're going to have to tell them, I'm not." "Oh, I'm sure we'll get away."

CHAPTER III

Mel worked all weekend and several nights to get caught up enough to take the family to Lake Shasta in northern

California. The Tuesday before they left, he called on Brad Marks. "I think I have a solution to your skateboard truck problem," he said. "I've costed it all out and I think you can make some money if the fad holds for more than a year." "what about the drill press problem?" Brad asked. "I've outlined a process here that should solve that." Mel said. "Instead of drilling the castings and pressing axles, you can sand cast the axles right in place." "I've never heard of that." "I'm sure that it can be done. Obviously, noone has ever done it before or this problem would not exist, because to increase production, you simply get more axles and pour more castings. No drilling, no pressing, no multiple drill presses, and no drill press operators. A completely flexible system." 33

"If you can install this for us and make it work, I can give you the go ahead right now." "Oh no!" Mel exclaimed. "I told you I would help you with a solution to your problem. I'm the engineer, you're the production genius. I've got the entire process explained in this folder. Anyone who has your experience with forge casting will be able to set it up." "But will it work?" "My reputation is riding on it," Mel said. "Besides every piece of paper in that folder is guaranteed. If any wear out just call me and I'll replace them at no charge." "Big deal, that will make a big point with the boss " "Great, I knew you couldn't pass up the guarantee. I've got to get my family up to Shasta before I have a mutiny on my hands. Good luck." "Thanks a lot. When will you be back to answer questions?" "We have to get back by the second week in September so the kids can start school. See you then." "Have a good time, Mel." The night before the family left for their

vacation at Lake Shasta, John picked Jessie up at 6:30. 34

They were going to La Paz for dinner, and then to the Pageant at the feutival grounds. John was tall, 6' 2" and only a senior in high school. Jessie loved his dark eyes and long lashes "Too pretty for a boy," she often said. "I wish I had them." They got along great together and all of the other kids at school just assumed that John and Jessie were a couple. They weren't demonstrative like some of the kids around campus. Oh, they held hands, and the way they looked at each other, no one doubted what they felt, but they were never seen to kiss in public. What do you want," John asked when they were seated at the restaurant. "Whenever I come here I can only get one thing." "What's that?" John asked. "The Chili Relleno and Enchilada dinner," she said. John had the combination dinner, Taco, Enchilada, Tamale with Albondigas soup. They both considered thmselves experts on mexican food. "The wonderful thing about this food is the fact that we have eaten in every mexican Restaurant between Anaheim and San Cimente, and in every place the taste is different. But, this one right here in Laguna has to be my favorite," Jessie said. 35

After they finished eating, they went out on Coast Highway and caught the tram car over to the Festival grounds. That saved having to park the car again and the tram. ran throughout town during the summer season. They got to the Festival in plenty of time to tour the artists exhibits before the show. When the bell rang announcing the start of the Pageant they followed the crowd to the entrance of the outdoor amphitheater. "These should be great seats," John said. "My mother works on the Festival committee and gets her tickets each year as soon as the preceeding Pageant is concluded. The seats were great, and so was the show. It's hard to explain to someone that a group of townsfolk are going to stand on the stage and pretend that they are

subjects in a painting and that this will go on for three hours and that the entire audience will sit spellbound. " You can always locate the first timers, because when the curtain opens the spontaneous gasps and exclamations overwhelm their throats. After the show, they caught the tram back down Coast Highway. When they got back to John's car he asked Jessie if she would like to go get some ice cream or something. "No thanks," she said. "The moon's so bright and 36 the ocean's so beautiful couldn't we just walk along the beach?" "I'd like that," he said. As they strolled along the sand, John put his arm around her shoulders. They walked in silence; Then he stopped and kissed her. "It's so beautiful." she said. "It doesn't seem possible that you're going off to war and I'm going off to Stanford. I don't want to give this up. He kissed her again and they walked over to the rocks and sat staring at the beautiful scene. Each kiss was more intense than the one before. Soon they were oblivious to the world outside their own bodies. Hands were exploring, caressing---soon they found their way beneath the clothing.. "Stop." Jessie said. "What's the matter?" "I do love you John, with all my heart, and we're going to get married and we are going to have children, but I don't want the first time we make love to be under a rock on the beach." "You have to know I love you Jessie. The toughest thing I do in my life is to stop when you ask." "I know, because I'm fighting the same drives you are. My body says go for it. But do you know what 37 I did to stop just now?" "No what?" John asked. "You'll think I'm crazy"

"You asked me if I wanted to know and I want to know." "Remember back to Mr. Roundy's social studies class when we were studying that unit on cultural anthropology?" ''Yeh." "Well, he had a theory, that animals have always followed their animal urges. Instincts. when man came along, his superior mind allowed him to plan. He could deny himself now for some greater good in the future, and that was dreaming. And it was man's dreams that created the things that made so much denial unnecessary. Now we're in an age of instant gratification and we're losing the ability to deny ourselves anything, and the danger is that we may lose the ability to dream." "What a time for an anthropology lecture9" John said. "See, I knew you'd laugh at me." He kissed her hard. "I'm not laughing, but what does that have to do with us?" "We're part of the human race, my folks, your folks, we'll have kids and they will be part of the 38 human race. What Mr. Roundy wau trying to say was that we all have a responsibility to each other and to the human race." Jessie explained. He didn't understand this beautiful philosopher of his, but he loved her more at that moment than he ever had. They sat in each others arms and watched the sand and the surf and the moon. For several years, Mel had packed up the camper and the boat and taken the whole family to Shasta Lake. All four were at home in the water, swimming, diving, and above all water skiing. They also brought along two Honda trail bikes. He had rigged a winch that he used to winch the two motorcycles into the boat. The camping, weather, the trails, and the water made for a great two or three weeks. On any given day they would probably sleep late, having breakfast under the trees, two of them, or sometimes all four would ride the motorcycles up some trail around camp. Up at 5 or 6 thousand feet, they vould get spectacular views of Mt. Shasta, Mt. Lassen, and the lake below. They would find meadows, mines, and peaks to explore in the cool crisp mountain air. Usually about noon or after, they would start back down

39

to the lake. Shasta Lake is only about 1000 feet in altitude and coming down the trail, the air would get warmer and warmer until at lake level it would be 100 degrees or more. That would be time to head for the cooling water of the lake, and an afternoon of water sports. It was a great way to forget all the troubles back at home, school, and work. On the next to the last night of the vacation, it had cooled off enough for a nice campfire. Jessie and Kevin had walked down to the camp store where most of the kids gathered after dinner to discuss all of the days excitement or lack of it, as the case happened to be. When they left, Sheila said, "Remember you two, back by ten." She turned to Mel and said "If you help me clean up these dishes, I'll sit with you by the fire. "Best offer I've had all evening," Mel replied. When the dishes were done and they were snuggled up together on the same chaise lounge looking up at the stars, Mel said "How could I be so lucky? I'm just your average guy, from an average town with the average number of kids." He leaned down and kissed Sheila. "An above average wife, of course." "Of course," she nodded. 40

"I don't see how I could be happier as a millionaire or a king or anything." "Well you are lucky to be that happy. Anything that would make you happier?" "No! Everything is perfect." He paused, then reflected. "Well maybe my job could be more challenging." "Your jOb?" "Yeah, I'm not complaining, mind you. But I've doing the same thing since I left college. I help people like Brad with problems in their business. Just once I'd like to have all the responsibility instead of solving problems for someone else, then on to the next client."

"You mean, own your own business?" "I guess so. Like I said, it's no burning desire, but it would make that part of my life more interesting." He kissed her again. "How about your life and your happiness?" Sheila stared at the fire for a moment, then said, "We're becoming so alike it scares me. I'm iust as happy as you are, but my job since you graduated from college has been raising kids. Jessie goes off to college next year and Kevin goes into High School. My job is almost finished. Could I join you in your new 41 business?" Mel laughed and said, "we haven't done too badly on our other joint ventures. Here come a couple that worked out pretty well." At that point Jessie and Kevin walked into camp out of the darkness. "Did you kids have a good time?" Sheila asked. They both proceeded to tell Sheila and Mel about the doings at the camp store tonight. "Well lets all hit the sack," Mel said. "Tomorrow's a big day. We have to get packed and ready to hit the road." Two days later they were back in Laguna. The kids were getting ready to go back to school, Sheila was busy with that and getting the house functioning normally, and Mel went back to work. 42

CHAPTER IV The first client Mel went to see was Brad Marks at the bicycle factory. "How's that new process for making trucks working? " Mel asked. "We're still sitting on that, waiting for the right moment to implement it. But I've had time to look it over. Mel you're a genius. No wonder you were so confident. I know it will work just like you said it would. I'm glad you stopped by. Our president, Jack

Shurly, would like to see you." "Anything wrong?" "Not that I know of. He just asked me if I could set up an appointment with you." "Sure thing. Is he available right now?" "Give me a minute, and I'll check." Mel checked out the assembly line while Brad was making a call to Jack Shurly. Brad joined him shortly and said that his boss was waiting for Mel in his office. "Second floor, brown door," was Brad's instructions. When Mel arrived at Javek's office, Jack ushered him in. "So glad to see you Mel. I wanted to express 43

my gratitude to you for over-hauling our production line and for that great idea on the skateboard trucks." "That's what you pay me for Jack." "Well, over the years, your ideas have made us a lot of money, and I want you to know I appreciate it." Mel shifted uncomfortabLy. Jack continued, "That's one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you. The other reason is more complicated. Did you ever have any desire to operate your own business?" "Yes," Mel answered, "as a matter of fact I have." "Good, then listen to my story. "My dad was a great inventor. Lowsy business man, but a great inventor. He built a small warehouse on Coast Highway, between Huntington Beach, and Newport in 1945. He had just come back from World War II and vanted our family to be off by ourselves. By all rights, we should have starved in that location. In those days, that was out in the middle of nowhere. Any way, dad did anything and everything that would bring us a buck. Somewhere along the line he started selling bicycles and surf boards and clothing. Like I said he wasn't too good with the business end, but everything he handled he improved upon. By the time he died in 1959, he had this warehouse here in Santa Ana building

44 bicycles, and the place down on Coast Highway making surfboards, beach gear, small boats, clothing. I think he did the first silk screening on the coast." "That's becoming big business now." "Well, he left all that to my brother and me. Our mom had died earlier. He didn't leave us any money, but lots of equipment and these two places. It was soon apparent that George and I could not work together. He had polio when he was a child and walked with a limp, and I think it affected his personality." "You hardly ever hear of that disease anymore," Mel said. "You're right. Salks vaccine really works. Anyway, we divided up the business. George took the Coast Highway store and I took the bicycle manufacturing." "That sounds fair." "It was my brother's idea. He hated the bicycles. Actually he hates most things--a very bitter man. He had a stroke last week. They don't expect him to live." "I'm sorry," Mel said. "You're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this. Well here's the reason. Would you be interested in buying my brother's business on Coast Highway?" "I don't know," Mel blurted. 45 "I'm the only family left," Jack continued, his business comes back to me. But I don't want it and I thought that you might like to take a look at it. "I'd like that, but why me?" Mel asked. "You've done so damn much for Because of you I'm making good money a lot more I'm hoping you can take and do the same. If anyone can, you down there right now if you want to "Let's go." On the way down to the store-warehouse, Jack explained that he wanted to keep the land and the building, but would give Mel a long term lease at whatever rent Mel thought was fair. He wanted to sell me over the years and and I stand to make my brother's shop can. We can go see it."

all the other assets including the inventory, the equipment, and the goodwill, "If there is any," joked. He opened the door to a fairly neat, well stocked retail store. There was surf gear, bicycles, surf boards and a pretty good selection of beach clothing. Behind the counter was a door leading to the rest of the building. This space was much larger and not nearly so neat. Every type of beach gear imaginable was stacked up against the walls and on top of several machines. Mel recognized the machines as silk screening equipment. 46 There also seemed to be some kind of an assembly line underneath all the boxes of stuff. Mel picked his way to the back of the building. Next to a large rollup warehouse door was a small office. inside was a desk, office equipment, files, etc. He reached up and turned on the light. The desk was covered with invoices, letters, advertising, surfing and clothing magazines--a real hodge podge. Jack followed him in and said, "If you're sufficiently interested in this mess, you can have the key and spend as many days as you like sorting through all this junk." "Oh, I'm interested all right," Mel answered. "Your suggestion sounds good, but how about your brother?" "Like I said, the doctors don't give him any chance to live. Anyway, I was made executor of my dad's will, so all of this technically belongs to me. My dad and I had promised my mother we would take care of George, his being crippled and all. I could give you the name of our lawyer if you vould feel better." "No. That's not necessary. I wouldn't like to be arrested for breaking and entering--that's all." "Not likely. George always had trouble getting the police down here for anything." 47

Mel had been rumaging through the papers on the desk. This is the third letter I've found from out of the country. Australia, Venezuela, and here's Hawaii. Did George do business overseas?" "No those are probably old letters. corresponded with people all over. Like used to invent a lot. I think that most in use in the surf industry were started My dad I said, he of the products right here in

this building. Dad would create something and someone in the store would ask him how to make it and he would not only tell thm how, but help them do it themselves. Then they would go out and manufacture my dad's idea. That happened with foam surfboards, wet suits, thongs, silkscreening and I don't know how many things. when I left here we were still getting letters asking my dad's advice or help with all kinds of ideas." "Your dad must have been a fascinating man." "Well I'll say this for him, he was a character. why don't you take the key now and we'll head back to Santa Ana. This place brings back too many mmories for me. You can come back whenever you like and go over everything. Oh, one thing more, Joey Smith might come around." "who's he?" Mel asked. "He's been hanging around here for years. I used 48

to put the chase on him, but George used him to run the store sometimes. For the most part, he's a surf bum. I caught him stealing a long time ago. Now he wants to buy the place." "What did he offer?" "He offered $100,000. The big problem would be getting him to pay. Don't worry I wouldn't sell to him." Mel took the key and locked the door. On the way back, he told Jack that he would talk to Sheila tonight, look at the warehouse tomorrow, and let Jack know his decision then. Jack said "That's great, take all of the time you need." When Mel got back to Laguna he told his wife the Whole story. He told her of Jack's dying brother, about the fascinating old man, the warehouse, and Jack's amazing offer. "I Know it's a good DEAL" Mel said. "Hell, he told me to set my own price and even the rent I would pay. I know that there is at least $50,000 worth of merchandise in the store out front, and I don't know how much in the back. I'd have to pay at least that much." "Not if he told you to set your own price," Sheila said.

49

"I'm not going to rob anyone." Mel retorted. "I know that, and so does Jack." Sheila laughed. "Well before I even consider the price, there's two much more important questions, that need answering." "And they are?" "I just said I'd have to pay at least what the inventory is worth. But I'm not going to buy anything myself. If I can't start saying 'we' then it's all off." "Mel, you know your decision is good enough for me," she said as she crossed the room and kissed him on the cheek. "Well," he said, "this decision would involve all our savings as well as a vast amount of effort from both of us. Are you ready for that?" "That's exactly what we talked about the other day. My mothering chores are coming to an end, and I want to do something with my life that I've not been able to do up till now, and I can't think of anything more exciting than going into business with my favorite partner. But can we earn a living in this kind of business?" "Now you've hit the second most important question. I will need to continue as consultant for a 50

few of my important clients that are depending on me. The good news is that I'll still be bringing in some money--the bad news is that you will need to run this new business when I'm not there." "We'll both be working our tails off for a while, But I'm still excited. Let's go over there in the morning and take inventory." Sheila said. "I was hoping you would say that," he said. Sheila and Mel were a fantastic team in business, just as they were any place else. Sheila's training in bookkeeping--she had been a bookkeeper before they were married--and her natural skills, both with the public and with their employees, were just what Mel needed. He was in his glory, taking Jack's dad's old inventions and equipment and readying products for market. It was a

perfect marriage in more ways than one. Before two years had gone by, they had to expand to a new larger warehouse in Santa Ana. Jessie had helped with the new business until she went off to Stanford, and Kevin worked with his dad every chance he got. Their hottest products were their silk screened 'Lightening Wave' clothing line, which they were selling to many large department stores, and a new surfboard called 'Meirs Body Board'. Mel had found a soft closed cell foam plank in one corner of the old warehouse. It 51

was light, strong, and flexible. The old man must have been experimenting with it for one of his ideas. Through some of the old notes in the files, Mel learned how to make it, then ingeniously fashioned it into an entirely new concept for riding waves. He was able to mass produce the thing for all water use. People were using the board not only for surfing, but also behind boats, in swimming pools and even in the snow. Sheila and Mel were now exporting their products to seven different countries.

52

CHAPTER V

By the time Jessie graduated from Stanford, the buuiness was grossing better than 10 million dollars per year. Mel had done his best to bring Kevin along as production manager, but Kevin had seemingly not inherited his father's skills or interest in machinery. Through high school, Kevin worked in the retail store. He became proficient at buying and selling and was a great asset to the overall business. However, his first love, as soon as he got his drivers licence was truck driving. At first, the company maintained a couple of small Ford vans. But after the business grew to two warehouses, it was profitable to operate a large diesel tractor with 40 foot trailer. At this point, Mel lost any hope he had for grooming Kevin to run the business. Kevin loved the big it with huge mag wheels, installed chrome stacks. for the business, making Kenworth truck. He outfitted had it custom painted, and He did all the truck driving deliveries to their large

customer's warehouses and picking up the supplies his dad needed in the factory. One day he said to his dad, "I met a long haul driver over at the K-Mart warehouse. He's an independent hauler, and over the years he put together several customers in the Chicago area and several in the L.A. area, so, that he always has full loads both ways. He's made a lot of money and he and his wife are going down to Costa Rica to live." "Costa Rica?" Mel asked, "Why there?" "He's an avid fisherman, dad, and they bought a place there. He says it's the greatest fishing in the world. Anyway, he wants to sell me his truck and his business." "Cross country driving, that's what you want to do?" "More than anything. But I would need a loan to, do it." Kevin said. "What about this place? I always hoped you would take over here." "We've been over that before, dad. I just can't see myself working here for the rest of my life." "I know, son. You've been honest vith me from the start. You don't like business and you love trucks. Your old man was just indulging in a little bit of dreaming. So, your sisters going to become a big time 54

lawyer and you're going off to be a cross country cowboy." "Only if you lend me the money." "Of course we'll lend you the money. What are parents for?" Kevin not only became a successful cross country hauler, but he married a cute little waitress that he met in a truck stop just outside of Denver. He and his wife Susanne, presented Sheila and Mel with 'about the cutest little grand daughter you ever saw' on January 12, 1979. 55 CHAPTER VI

Jessie's love life had never been a thing of beauty. She felt, "wnat's the point?" When she graduated from high school, she was totally committed to John. Then, she went off to Stanford and he to Viet Nam. They corresponded as constantly as the mails allowed, both sharing innermout feelings as only truly committed lovers can. She tried dating some of the Stanford students, but between fending off the pawing, clutching sex maniacs, and suffering through the delusions of the 'God's gift to women' types, she really didn't enjoy herself much. None of them, even the seniors seemed as together as John was when they graduated from high school. Then one day in 1974, during her sophomore year at Stanford, she got an urgent message during literature class to call home immediately. She left class and went downstairs to the nearest phone. Her mother answered. "Where are you right now, Jessie?" "I'm in literature class." "No, Jessie. I mean where is the phone you are talking on?" "It's in the basement of the English building. Why are you asking these questions, mom?" "Is there anyone close by?" Sheila asked. "There's a secretary here typing. Why, what is it?" "Jessie, John has been killed in Viet Nam." "Jessie, Jessie, are you all righte Jessie?" "I'm here, mom. I'm going back to the dorm. I'll call you from there." She hung up the phone and started to cry. She found her way out of the building, but couldn't think of where she was going. She stumbled to a patch of grass beneath some trees and surrendered to uncontrollable sobbing. By the time she got back to her dorm, there were people looking for her. When she hadn't called back, Sheila had phoned the campass police, the dorm, and the administration building. Sheila and Mel insisted that she come home to Laguna, at least for a few days, but Jessie said no.

John's death had been confirmed and his body placed with some other dead in a building that was subsequently captured by the Viet Cong. They were not even able to ship him back to the United States. Jessie said that the only way she could handle the hurt was to go on with her classes. After John's death, Jessie didn't date at all.

58 CHAPTER VII

Jessie joined the firm of Blanchard, Foremost, Keene, and Sarchet in the summer of 1974, right out of Stanford Law School. She helped John Sarchet locate a beautiful suite of offices on the seventh floor of the Silver Tower Building in Fashion Island, and was a big help to the decorator in convincing Sarchet and Larry Mitts to include something other than sterile law office decorations. After serving her apprenticeship on several cases with Sarchet and Mitts, she was given her first case. It involved a wealthy industrialist who lived on Lido Isle and had purchased 20 acres of land in Capistrano Valley for a horse ranch. That was nany years ago, and he had never gotten around to building the ranch. In the meantime, the state built Interstate 5 right past the property. As usual, the tract home developers followed along right after the freeway and suddenly there were tract homes going up to the north and to the south of his 20 acres. Not only that, but two of the new home foundations had been poured on what turned out to be Brian Federly's property. Faulty survey records dating back to the days when that land was part of a Spanish land grant were at fault. The land had only had three legal owners in all of recorded history, in spite of the fact that it had been governed by three different countries. When the freeway was built, accurate surveys were traced all the way from the San Bernardino Base Line. No one local had ever had occasion to be that accurate before. Now that tract home owners were being confined to 60 foot by 100 foot lots, the old records that read, "from the large rock at the top of the hill to the sycamore tree in the

stream bed" would no longer suffice. The boundery line problem that had begun so long ago was made worse when the lawyer for the developer informed Mr. Federly that his client needed to purchase a 60 foot strip of property along Federly's northern most property line. What could have been a simple problem, ended up in a shouting match. The lawyer threatening to petition the county to condemn the strip and Federly vowing to never sell. After consulting with Federly, and discerning that his heart really wasn't in the battle, Jessie phoned the lawyer for the developer. She began. "Since my clients property was trespassed upon, we 60

feel it is incumbent upon you to either vacate the trespass or to offer some acceptable solution." After volunteering a few desultery remarks about women lawyers, Mr. French, the attorney said, "We offered Federly a fair price for the property we need." "Obviously, he didn't want to sell you the property you need. Maybe you concentrated too much on what you need, and not enough on what Federly might need." "What do you mean?" French said.

"Federly bought that property years ago for a horse ranch, and I don't think he wants a ranch right next to I 5. He might not agree to selling you 60 feet, but he might be amenable to selling the entire 20 acres. "Is that an offer?" "Heavens no, it's a suggestion that you look for alternatives." Jessie explained. "Look lady, I don't know what they are teaching in those coed law schools these days, but I'm not in the business of researching peoples life styles and tayloring my client's business to their whims. I'll tell you what I am in the business of---that's filing lawsuits. I'm working with the county attorney to condmn that strip we need. They approved the tract maps. We can't move 53 homes with sewer lines, streets, 61

water mains and everything 60 feet just to satisfy your client. Besides, my people aren't made of money." "Well, I think you just made my case for compromise. Who is the county attorney you are dealing with?" Jessie asked. "It's the head man over there, Bill Morrissey." Jessie decided to waste no more time trying to reason with the adament attorney. It was easy to see how Federly ended up in a shouting match with the single minded individual She picked up the phone again, and called the county administrative office.. "May I speak to Mr. Morrissey please?" In a few moments, a deep voice said, "Bill Morrissey here." "Mr. Morrissey," Jessie said, I'm an attorney with Blanchard, Foremost, Keene, and Sarchet. My name is Jessie Meir." "Yes Miss Meir. Is it miss?" "Yes it is. I've just been on the phone to Mr. French, the attorney for Bilyea Construction Company." "I've talked to Mr. French." Morrisey said. "He tells me that the county approved Biltea's tract maps with the inacurate survey records that caused them to trespass on my client's property." "We had no way of knowing that the old survey was 62

innacurate." "I understand". Jessie said. "I could be wrong, but I feel that my client might be agreeable to some kind of a compromise. I feel that this would be in my client's best interest." "It's my understanding that Bilyea Construction offered to buy the strip of property involved, and Mr. Federly turned them down." "That is correct. However, I suggested to Mr. French that there may be other compromises possible." Morrisey said guardedly "Such as."

"Possibly a sale of the entire 20 acres." "I wasn't aware it was for sale. What did French say?" "I want to make it clear that I am not authorized by Mr. Federly to offer anything for sale. I am really trying to get the parties involved in this problem to search out all possible solutions. The alternatives to compromise are frightening." Jessie explained. "It's so refreshing to hear an attorney from the private sector talk that way. let me get in touch with French, and I'll get right back to you." Later that afternoon, the phone rang and it was Bill Morrissey. "I talked to French. He sounds more like the attorneys I'm used to dealing vith---never compromise, delay, and see you in court." 63 "Come on now' we're not that bad." Jessie laughed. "No you're not. That's the surprising thing. Anyway, I have a new proposal that might solve this whole thing. We have a county fund that's been collected from the developers for the express purpose of park land acquisition. I feel certain that if I were to recommend Federly's 20 acres be purchased for future park development, that the park commission and the supervisors would go for it." "That sounds great." "There are some contingencies. Bilyea Construction will have to buy the 60 foot strip from us at the same price that they offered to Federly. And, Federly will have to accept appraised value for the 20 acres "I'll convey your terms to Mr. Federly." "I certainly appreciate the roll you've played in these negotiations." Morrissey sounded sincere. "it would never have occured to me to dig deeper for compromise. Once these problems deteriorate to the place this one was, it's usually the whole court procedure for everyone involved. And this one involved not just Federly and Bilyea construction, but the surveyers and the county. It could have gone on for 64

years. Oh, by the way, as soon as you get approval from Federly, let me know. I want to contact the construction company myself. I know that they want a quick solution to this problem so they can get on with their building. I don't want to take a chance on French screwing up the whole thing. Thanks again." "No need to thank me," Jessie said, "I'm just doing my job. They pay me to solve problems."

"We don't pay you to solve problems on the phone." Sarchet had called her into his office and was angrily wagging his finger in her face. "We have a huge investment in this place. We employ over 70 lawyers, we all get large salaries, we all have years of law school, we are not here to analize the problems our clients bring to us and find workable solutions outside the law. If we spent our time finding compromises, we wouldn't have time to practice what we are trained to do. We would have to move down to the low rent district and hang out a sign---compromises found. Jessie was shocked. She had never seen Sarchet mad before---and it was so unfair. "Are you telling me I was wrong for finding a solution to the problem they were having?" 65

"Did you know that Mr. French was fired from Bilyea Construction?" Sarchet shot back. "No, I didn't." "We owe our fellow lawyers professional courtesy. You should have let him present the compromise to his client. "That was Bill Morrissey's doing. He was afraid French would be opposed to any compromise" "And rightly so. Do you realize that instead of a lucrative ongoing court case, all we have left is an available lawyer." Sarchet calmed a little. "Actually, you negotiated a good compromise, but you were lucky. I just want this to be a learning experience for you. Don't expect every case to just resolve itself. Like I said, if all cases fell into place like this one, we would all be out of a job. Give your clients some credit. Assume that they have been smart enough to search out all possible solutions and when they call us in, they need our legal expertise. They are paying this firm over $300 per hour for that expertise and they don't want us going over the same ground they have

already covered. We don't do our customers or ourselves any good by not earning enough money to survive. A rule of thumb policy that we have always followed is to keep our costs of operation and our number of clients before us. By simply dividing the costs by the number of 66 clients at any given time, we can arrive at an average expense for each client. The type of clients that we cater to would not call us if we did not maintain these expensive locations. They insist on expensive outlays, so they should be the ones to pay. Right now, the average has risen to approximately *1000 per month per client. Please realise that we must charge that minimum for every client we keep on our books." Jessie left his office feeling like a thoroughly reprimanded small child. She now knew that she had not favorably impressed her boss, but she still felt good about the part she had played in the Federly case. 67

VIII

CHAPTER VIII

Nixon was reelected president in 1972, and for two years the nation watched unbelievingly as the Watergate mess unfolded. As so many times in the past, the villians had successfully passed themselves off as the good guys. They had a lot of unwitting help from the desperate, unwashed, long haired, young society dropouts who sensed the wrongs being perpetrated on the Vietnamese, but were unable to translate their insight into anything believable. Who would have guessed at the time that the real threat to the country was not these fowl mouthed disidents screaming four letter words into microphones, but the clean cut educated elite in their $400 business suits down in Washington. They divirted the country's attention by pointing their fingers at the dirty young creeps, while amassing quantities of laundered money, at the same time they were subverting the law to their own ends. During this darkest of hours for the country, Kevin kept his nose to the grindstone. He had missed the Viet Nam war by virtue of a bad eardrum. Once at

68 Laguna he had taken off on a huge wave and lost control of his surfboard. He was dashed to the bottom by the tremendous power of the wave. He bounced along the sand until he thought his lungs would burst. When the wave finally turned him loose, he had a punctured ear drum. It hampered him the rest of his life, in his love of water sports, his career as truck driver---especially crossing the Rockies---and just hearing the world go by. Possibly it was a blessing, for he was the type of individual who would have gone off to war unquestioningly if his country had beckoned. Kevin had no trouble obeying rules. Possibly he was fortunate enough to grow up in an atmosphere where all the rules he encountered made sense. He was sickened by the flood of young hippy types that had invaded Laguna Beach in the late sixties. It was obvious to him, even in high school, that these misguided individuals were sacrificing the best part of their lives and throwing away their future just for the chance to get high. Most surfers were not hippies, and visa versa. The surfer could not aford to abuse his body and still survive day after day in the most demanding sport of all. Their high came from the exhilaration of the challenge. On the highway, Kevin was also law abiding. It 69 was easy for him to obey rules. And even more so when the rules protected his livlihood and his beloved truck. He hated the reckless throttle jockies in their sports cars who zipped in and out of traffic particularly around the big cities. "They are probably frustrated by a desk job in some big office" he thought. But even more than the amatuer race drivers in sports cars he resented the pedal-to-the-metal truck drivers. Just as a professional policeman directs more hatred at a bad cop than he does at an ordinary law breaker, Kevin felt that every bad truck driver was taking a shot at him personally. His profession, that he worked so hard at, was being tarnished by a handful of ignorant, rude, selfish individuals. Unfortunately, his gut feeling of disgust was prophetic. By the mid 80's, around Chicago the number of these incompetant drivers had increased. The increase had happened everywhere, but the traffic on Chicago's freeways was so intense that the problem was exaggerated. Also the crunch put on the trucking industry by the gas crises, piggy back railroading, and a falling economy had driven many of the more competent truck drivers to other jobs or to retirement. Some of the one's left vere driving maintenance neglected trucks

for too long hours at excessive speeds. The number of 70

trucks involved in fatal accidents had steadily climbed. The public was fed up, the police clamped down, and insurance rates for truckers skyrocketed. Kevin had to pay twice as much each year for less coverage. Late one Friday afternoon, going into Chicago on I 80, Kevins truck was passed by a long empty flatbed Peterbuilt that must have been doing 75 in heavy traffic. The freeway was 3 lanes at that point and as the driver passed Kevin, he came up behind a slower moving Cadillac, driven by a little grey haired man. Without slowing down, he swerved the flatbed into the center lane to pass the Cadillac. At that moment all three lanes up ahead slowed. The driver of the flatbed saw an opening two lanes over in the outside lane, swerved again in front of the Cadillac and hit the brakes. The old man panicked and cut right in front of Kevin. He braked, and with the added stopping power that 35,000 pounds of oranges gave him, he avoided the CadillaC. However, a little old yellow Volkswagon with three passengers and the driver buried itself under the trailer. Two of the three passengers were killed outright and the driver and the other passenger were severly injured. Neither the flatbed truck nor the Cadillac stopped and in the confusion no one got any license 71 numbers or discriptions. The freeway was completely jammed, and the ambulance took an hour and a half to reach the accident. Before the ambulance got there, while Kevin and a passerby were comforting one of the injured, a short bald fat man poked Kevin on the shoulder. "Here take my card." "Who are you?" "I'm probably going to be the attorney for these mangled people. My name is Marty Feldstein. It's there on the card." "Get out of my sight," Kevin barked. Several days later, back in San Clemente where Kevin and his family lived, the phone rang. "This is Marty Feldstein in Chicago."

"Who?" "Marty Feldstein. I was at the accident you had with your truck on I80." "What do you want?" "I have been retained by both of the survivors of the accident. I also have tentative permission from one of the dead men's brother to represent him and I hope to represent the family of the other victim also." "Well talk to my insurance company." "I already have. Is it true that your liability 72 policy was only for $500,000?" "That's all they would sell me. Kevin said. "I can tell you right now that's not enough. Do you have any assets?" "I'm not going to talk to you. Call my insurance company." Kevin hung up the phone and was visably shaking. "Who was that dear?" Susanne, his wife asked. "Wrong number," he lied. "I'm going for a walk on the beach." "O.K., dinner will be ready soon." Over the next few weeks, developments went from bad to worse for Kevin. First, his insurance agent advised him that his truck insurance would not be renewed. "Why, the accident was not my fault?" "That's not the point. We're going to have to pay the limit on this one. Once that happens,~you're a bad risk." Next, the lawyer for his insurance company called and advised Kevin that he should be represented personally by a separate attorney, as he would be held personally responsible for all judgments over the $500,000 limit on the policy. Finally, his best customer in Chicago called to

73

ask him about the accident and about his insurance for the future. When Kevin told him he was going to have to get a new insurance company, the shipper said that he was sure that all Kevin's customers would want proof of his new insurance 'if he got any'. "We've seen this happen before." He said. "Once an insurance company cancels you, you'll play hell getting covered again."

One day Jessie's phone rang at her office in Newport. "This is Morgan Blanchard," the voice said. "I understand you handled a case for George Federly back in September." "Yes I did," Jessie answered, thinking 'am I going to get chewed out by the big boss now'? "That was over a year ago." "Well, I suppose John told you how well that worked out?" "John Sarchet?" she asked incredulously. "You mean John didn't tell you that Federly was instrumental in transferring law accounts from three different corporations to us?" "No, he didn't." "He owns two of the companies and is chairman of the board of the third. Each account is worth over 74 $100,000 a year to us. Federly said that any firm that employed honest, dedicated lawyers like you, deserved his business. John didn't tell you that?" he asked again. "No", but I'm sure glad to hear it." "So were we," Blanchard said. "I'm glad I could bring you that piece of good news and I think I can make you even happier." "How's that, sir?" Jessie asked.

"Well, I understand from Mitts that you are going a superb job out there in Orange County. He said you've participated in more cases than anyone there." That's because Sarchet was reluctant to give her cases of her own after that first one, she thought.

"He said your contribution to the cases you've worked on has been excellent." Blanchard continued. "That's nice of Larry to say so." she said. "Anyway, we are going to bring Sarchet back to L.A. and we would'like you to take his position there in Orange County as head of that office." "OH!" she gasped. "That's wonderful. Uh--did Sarchet approve?" "Well as you know, he's been up in San Francisco on the Brandwein case a lot. But, the board called in Mitts and we talked to the new lawyers and the staff 75 down there--they all raved about your competance. So congratulations." "Thank you very much, Mr. Blanchard. Thank the other board members for me, also." "You Just keep up the good work. That'll be thanks enough for us. Goodbye." Blanchard hung up.

While Jessie was at Stanford and Kevin had gone into truck driving, Sheila and Mel really had their work cut out for themuelves. "This business is too damn big for two people to handle, and not big enough to afford adequate help," Mel was always saying. The sporting goods field had always been attractive. Everyone wants to invent, manufacture, distribute, or sell some kind of sporting products It's fun to test your own products if you're selling surfboards, bicycles, dive gear etc. However, this fact always attracts more entrepenuers than the public can support. That makes for high competition, and low margin. Mel knew that Sheila could use a full time C.P.A., and office manager to run the office staff, and heaven knows he needed a full time foreman and machine maintenance man to supervise the men and keep the 76 equipment functioning. But, even though they were doing a large dollar volume, there just wasn't the profit margin to run the operation right. Both of them were disillusioned and exhausted by the business they had. Along about 1976, the beginnings of what would

become a billion dollar skateboard boom was surfacing. Jack Shurly called Mel and said "I've got all the business here that I can handle with these damn bicycles. I don't mind turning out more of those skateboard trucks,since your production idea made it easy for me to turn those things out in any quantity, But I'll be damned if I'm going to deal with all these kooks who want to sell skateboards. Mel, you sell your surfboards and stuff to department stores, and small sports shops anyway, why don't you distribute these skateboards for me?" "Sounds good to me." Mel said. "How do you want to work it?" "You just tell me how many trucks you want and I'll ship them over to you. I'll also send all these skateboard builders to you." "Thanks Jack," Mel said. But he didn't know what he was getting into. "I'll send my truck over and pick up 1000 or whatever you have to satisfy the customers." "Better make that 5000," Jack said. By the following day, Mel had an inkling of what 77 he was getting into. There were no less than 30 people crowding his service counter in the warehouse. "Jack Shurly said we had to buy skate trucks from you." One said. Mel sold them all they wanted, but before they were gone 20 more buyers had shown up. Soon he was out of product and had ordered more from Jack. "Even your process is not going to keep up with this rush," Jack said. "You better figure some way of rationing these things." "Well, some of my small retail customers have complained that guys are buying these skate trucks, putting them on boards, and selling them super cheap at swap meets, street corners, and even out of their garages. I've considered protecting my good customers who have legitimate stores and guarantee their merchandise. It would probably protect the public from bad merchandise if we restricted sales to those stores and to established skateboard manufacturers." "Good idea," Jack said. However, Mel soon discovered that it was not a good idea. He was contacted by an attorney representing several of the swap meet buyers. "So long as my clients

have purchased this product from you before, and they are willing and able to purchase that product now, you 78

are in restraint of trade if you refuse to sell to them." Mel made a quick call to the law firm in Santa Ana that had incorporated his business. (He would never think of bothering Jessie with his law questions-just as he would never ask Kevin to haul his furniture to Chicago.) His attorney verified that he would be violating the law if he had previously sold to those customers. If he were short of product he could legally refuse new customers and ration amounts to old customers on a fair basis, but it was none of his business what the customers did with the skate trucks after they paid for them. Mel was shocked. "All I was trying to do," he told Sheila, "was protect the kids who are going to buy those skateboards from possible serious injury if the boards are not put together right." Those words were to haunt Mel for the rest of his life. While working in the warehouse one afternoon, someone in the office sent a man out to see him. The man was a process server who served Mel with a lawsuit. His worst fears had come to pass. A 12 year old boy in Pasadena was riding on a skateboard at the end of a rope attached to an older friends car. Somehow the skateboard malfunctioned, the boy flew off the board and 79 hit his head on the curb. They didn't know if he would live, but if he did, he would probably be brain damaged. Mel called his insurance agent. Originally, Mel had $1,500,000 product liability policy with this company. Each year he was in business, the coverage on his policy was cut in half and the premium more than doubled. At the present time, his coverage was down to $160,000, the maximum he could buy. The insurance agent asked Mel to send the lawsuit over to him. While all this was going on in Sheila and Mel's business, Kevin and his family were devastated in the aftermath of Kevin's accident in Illinois. He was unable to get insurance on his truck at any price, so he had stored it in a storage yard outside of town. Susanne got a job in a small dress shop in San Clemente. By now, their daughter, Kim, was 6 years old and Susanne had a neighbor who took care of Kim when no one was

home. Kevin had no trouble getting truck driving Jobs driving other company's trucks, since the accident had not been his fault. He hadn't been cited for anything, but his lower take home pay made it impossible to keep up the payments on their home. However, the aubulance chaser had drawn up a lawsuit naming Kevin, the orange company that Kevin was

80

hauling for, the State of Illinois, and all the insurance companies involved. Kevin had heard, through his attorney, that the orange company and the State of Illinois had settled for unannounced sums as minor defendants in the suit. Kevin's insurance company offered to settle, but the ambulance chaser refused. The trial was set for next April 22.

Sheila and Mel's lawsuit from the skateboard tragedy, named their corporation, Lightning Wave, the teenager driving the car that was pulling the skateboarder, the skatewheel manufacturer, the swap meet salesman and Does 1-10. The 12 year old boy was still alive but had not recovered consciousness. Mel was asked to identify the parts on the skateboard. He went over to the plaintiff's lawyer's office, accompanied by his insurance company's lawyer and his lawyer from Santa Ana. "Don't say anything while we are in there except where the parts came from if you know," They both advised him. When they got back out in the parking lot Mel said said. "It has skate trucks of a type I don't sell. I don't know about the wheels, we do wholesale that brand, but we have never sold that type skatetruck.

81 The lawyer for the insurance company said, "That may help if you can prove it. However, recent decisions have established the precedent that manufacturers who profit from an item can be held liable for injuries caused by that item, regardless of who sold it." "That's crazy," Mel exclaimed.

"Don't forget, they are going to wheel a comatose child into that courtroom in front of that jury and point out the loss of productive life, and the expense of years of care on that poor family. I'd like to have that situation. I think I could sway any jury." The other lawyer agreed.

82

IX

CHAPTER IX

Usually, when the whole family got together, no one discussed business. It was kind of an unwritten rule that they were together to enjoy each other. Christmas of 1988 they all gathered at Kevin and Suzanhe's house. Sheila had said "It doesn't seem like Christmas unless there are children." They all watched Kim tear the paper off a large stuffed bear and then help everyone else tear the wrappings off their presents. Jessie laughed. "The little ones always seem to enjoy the paper and the boxes more than what's inside." She looked around and sensed a more sober mood than any family Christmas she could remember. Her dad had wandered out on the porch and was just staring over the railing. Jessie walked up beside him and kissed him on the check. He continued staring and mumbled, "That poor boy." "What poor boy, Dad?" "That boy won't have any Christmas." "Dad--What boy?"

83

"Oh Jessie." He suddenly came to-muttering--"getting old I guess." "You were talking about some poor boy." Just then, Sheila came out on the porch. "You're not talking about that boy again, Mel? Are you?" "Hey, you guys, what boy?" Jessie asked. "Oh nothing, your father is obsessed by his problems. This is Christmas we're here to have a good time." "I want to know, what problem?" She persisted. "The business was sued because a 12 year old boy got hurt on a skateboard." At that point, Kevin came out the door. "We're not going to spend Christmas talking about our law suits are we?" "You have a law suit too?" Jessie exclaimed. "What's the matter here, don't I still belong to this family? Someone tell me what's going on." Kevin said. "I thought you guys were discussing the suits. It's not much Jessie. I'm being sued for an accident I had in Illinois and the folks are being sued because a kid fell off a skateboard." Mel raised his voice uncharacteristically, "Not much, not much---there's a kid in a coma who will never see Christmas again." 84 "Calm down Mel. You're letting this get the better of You," Sheila said. "I think we better go home now." She took Mel's arm and walked him out to the car. They all said goodbye and Sheila drove away. "Little brother," Jessie said firmly, "you get in here and tell me what's wrong with dad." Kevin explained both law suits. "There is nothing you can do, Sis. We both have plenty of lawyers." "I'll never forgive any of you for not letting me help from the beginning. But now that I am informed I want to see all of the papers that you have pertaining to your case." They spent the rest of the evening going over Kevin's papers with Jessie taking copious notes.

"Tomorrow," she said, "I don't have to work and I am going to Laguna and find out about that boy." "Actually," Kevin said, "I'm really glad to have your help. We weren't keeping anything from you. It's just that average law abiding people don't expect these things to happen to them. They just sneak into your life and before you know it you're destroyed." "I blame myself," she said, "I've been so engrossed in competing-- playing the legal game---that's all it is, a game---that I have closed my eyes to the 85 fact we are dealing with real people's lives. I've witnessed the destruction you're facing. But from the other side. I'11 never forgive myself for my callousness. I wonder how many devastated families I've left in my wake. The obsession lawyers have in 'the game' keeps our minds off the human misery we create." Susanne had been listening to the whole thing and started crying. "We're going to lose everything, the truck, the house, your job. and why? because some idiot in a truck was driving like a mad man." "Honey don't." Kevin said. "Let her get it out." Jessie stood and put her arm around Susanne. "We worked so hard---so did your folks---they're average people---they didn't do anything wrong either. How many average people out there know that they can be chewed up by a system that doesn't even care whether they did anything wrong. It could happen to anyone. I feel sorry for the dead and the injured, but how does taking everything we've got help them. The ones who will get the money are the relatives and the lawyers." "Yes and for the first time I'm beginning to see that the interpretations that have been made recently by the judges,at the proding of the lawyers,are not so much to help the injured as they are to reward the lawyers. 86 I'm going to make some changes in the way my division of firm operates." Jessie vowed. They talked far into the night each leaning on the other for support.

The day after Christmas, Jessie woke early and took a jog on the beach. When her new job had opened up with B.F.K. and S. at their Newport division, she had moved into a spacious new apartment complex inland in Irvine. It was close to work, cheaper than beach apartments in Newport, and gave her much more room. After the first year there, she located an apartment just a block from the sand. It was smaller, older and expensive, but she had so little time outside of work that she indulged herself. At the apartment complex, the people used to gather around the pool and party. If she had had unlimited time, she would have joined in, but at this stage of her life, her choice was still career, and that dominated. What time she did have to herself she preferred to devote to her physical and mental conditioning. She would spend it jogging, riding her bicycle on the bike paths, or relaxed on a blanket on the sand with a good book. She planned to spend the day with her folks in

87 Laguna. She had to help with this problem that seemed to be devastating her father. First she called her mother to make sure they would be home. "Sure honey, be happy to have you." Sheila said "Come for brunch." Down at Laguna, they were having a fabulous fruit plate out on the porch overlooking the ocean far below. Jessie said, "Mom, we talk on the phone three or four times a week. I can't believe you and dad have had this legal problem and didn't let me help. It was you vho put me through law school." "I know dear, but everyone is so busy. Kevin with his truck and his family, your dad and I spend almost every day at the business, and I know you put in terribly long hours on your job. Whenever we have free time for diversion we certainly don't want to use it talking business." Her dad seemed more alert this morning. "I'm sorry I said anything about the problems yesterday and spoiled everyone's Christmas." He said. "No dad. Now that's the kind of attitude we're going to drop right now. From now on, I'm going to help. I want you to tell me everything that's happened so far." 88

Mel seemed relieved to have an outlet for his troubles. He poured out the details of the case from the lawyers threatened action for his alleged restraint of trade, to the little boy's accident, to his visit to view the skateboard at the lawyer's office. "Can they do that?" Can they convict a person even if he did his best to avoid the accident, and was forced to sell to disreputable persons. And even if he can prove he didn't sell the parts?" "Easy dad. First, no one is going to convict you of anything. The worst that could happen is the attorneys for the little boy could get a monetary judgment against you, and you have product liability insurance for that. You still carry the insurance, right?" "We still have the insurance, but the insurance company cut the coverage each year until now it's only $180,000." "$180,000, it used to be over a million." She gasped. "I know, and we pay the insurance company 16 times as much premium for 1/8 as much coverage." Mel said. "Well don't worry, dad. I'm going to get in touch with your lawyers tomorrow. I'm sure the plaintiff's attorneys have sued everyone they can possibly drag into the accident--that's standard procedure in liability 89 cases." Mel and Sheila both felt a lot better after Jessie left. The next day at the office, Jessie cailed her secretary in. "I want a total staff meeting at 1:00, lawyers included. It will only last for about 30 minutes, but anyone missing had better have an airtight excuse. Next, she phoned her father's old law firm in Santa Ana to inform them that her father had retained her to join the skateboard accident case. She requested copies of all of the documentation so far, so that she could catch up with the proceedings. The old man who had always handled legal matters for her father seemed miffed. He did, however, promise to send her everything she requested. He said the latest developments

included: the plaintiff's attorneys naming Jack Shurley's bicycle company, the parents of the boy driving the car that was pulling the skateboarder when he fell, and the city of Pasadena as defendants. And finally, the boy had regained consciousness but would probably be paraplegic and brain damaged. The entire staff attended Jessie's 1:00 PM meeting. She said, "The agenda involves only one item and that is 90 overall policy. In reveiwing our past cases, I have been struck by the callousness of our approach to people. Not so much our treatment of our own clients, but particularly the people involved in our opposition. Don't get me wrong, I know we must win judgments favorable to our clients. However, I detect a win at all costs approach even if innocent people are damaged. From now on, I want everyone working here to go out of their way to avoid unnecessary hardship to all the people we deal with. Any questions?" Larry Mitts asked, "Are you attempting to do away with the adversary concept in law?" "No, I realize our legal opponents have been retained by their clients to fight for their best interests and theoretically out of the clash of the two adversaries will come the greatest justice.However, we all know that more often than not legal gobledy-gook gets in the way. Is there any lawyer here who hasn't asked for a delay simply for the purpose of inconveniencing the oppositions client, or requested a whole desk full of interrogatories to run up that clients costs? Or how about both of those actions to stretch a case until your opponents client runs out of money. That's a good one, because we can keep sending monthly bills to our own client all the time our

91 opposition lawyer is billing his client into defeat. 1'm saying that this division is going to avoid actions of that nature and do our best to resolve conflicts expeditiously and fairly." "O.K. boss," Mitts said. "We'll all turn over a new leaf." It wasn't more than two days later, that Jeusie's secretary came in and informed Jessie that she had received a strange call from the main office in L.A. The secretary said that it was strange because when she

asked them if they wished to speak to Miss Heir they simply said "No, inform Miss Heir that there will be a meeting of the board of directors in the board room in L.A. at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday and that she is expected to attend." "Fine, put it on my calendar, I'll be there." Tuesday morning, the traffic was unusually light on the freeway into Los Angeles. Jessie pulled into the underground garage at the Richfield Towers building around 7:40. That would give her some time to visit vith the secretaries in the coffee room. Jessie talked on the phone with several of the ladies at the main office in her many coordination efforts between the two 92 divisions. She liked the administrative part of the job better than the legal confrontations. She got off the elevator at the 54th floor, said 'Hi' to the receptionist who was talking to what must have been a salesperson, and walked back to the coffee room. The only person there was Rodney, the handsome black Harvard graduate who helped interview her that first day in 1974. "Hi Rodney." She said. "You caught me at the water cooler again, he laughed. His back was to her as he was pouring a cup of coffee. When he turned around his eyes lit up and he said, "Jessie, long time no see. Want a cup of coffee?" "Yes, with cream please. I should have just about enough time for one cup. I have a meeting." "Yes, I know," his voice lowered, "since someone may come through that door at any moment let's dispense with amenities. I'm glad I caught you before that meeting starts. I figured you might come here first. You've got to watch out for Sarchet. He's out to get you. "You've got to be kidding. I haven't seen him since he left our division." Jessie said. "Your division now," Rodney whispered. "And that's the problem. He never got over your taking over 93 for him in Orange County." "He never said a word to me."

"Sarchet worked for a long time to get that setup. Off away from here with his own operation. He figures that you screwed him out of it." "That's absurd. Morgan Blanchard said that the board voted to bring him back to L.A. and asked me to head up Newport. That's all there was to it." "I know that, but you keep your eyes open just the same." Roger warned. At that moment, the receptionist looked in the door and said, "Miss Heir, the board meeting is starting." "Be right there," she turned back to Rodney. "Thanks for your efforts. I'll be careful."

At the board meeting there were only Blanchard, Sarchet, and Keene, all seated. They rose when she came in, a minimum of pleasantries were said, and she sat down on the opposite side of the big table. "This is not an official board meeting," Morgan Blanchard began. "We just felt that we would like to sit down with you Miss Heir--Uh--Jessie and clarify our thinking on a delicate matter." 94 Jessie waited for him to continue. "It was brought to our attention," Jessie caught the slightest of sneers on Sarchet's face, "that you had a policy meeting at your office last Wednesday." "It wasn't exactly a policy meeting." "No?" He interrupted. "We heard that you announced a change in basic company philosophy." "Not a change, sir. I asked the people under me to be more cognizant of the circumstances and feelings of the clients we represent." "And of the people our opponents represent?" "Yes I felt that too much emphasis was being placed on legal manuevering and not enough on solving clients problems." "My dear girl, legal manuevering is what we are trained to do. It's what we are being paid for." Sarchet found the moment he had waited for. "Isn't it true that I reprimanded you on your very first

case for wasting the company's time and the clients money, problem solving, instead of practicing law like you were being paid to do?" She half smiled at him, "You mean the case with that industrialist, what was his name, Federly?" "That was it. You took a complicated legal problem involving several litigants and instead of 95 following legal procedures, you went off trying to negotiate between all the parties. I told you at that time to give our clients the credit to have thought of negotiation before you are consulted. Your job is the law." "Oh yes, I remember, the county agreed to build a park and Federly was so happy he transferred his corporate business to us." "Here here," Blanchard broke in. "We are not here to review the past, except for the policy meeting you had last week. We have a fairly accurate report of what you said at that meeting. Here check this copy. Is it correct?" Jessie took the typed page. "Yes that's essentially what I said." "Then vhat we have to decide, is whether this constitutes policy, if it's the correct policy for this coupany, and if it isn't correct, institute the correct policy. Do you agree?" ''Yes." "Well, we have decided that it definitely qualifies as policy." They all nodded, as he continued. "We have also decided that it alters company policy of concentrating on legal prodecure in the best interest of our clients. So the only remaining question is how do 96 we reinstitute company policy in your division." Keene spoke up for the first time. "I suggest that Miss Meir call another policy meeting of her staff with one of us present, and explain to them that her previous policy statement was in error. "That's like rapping my knuckles in front of my whole staff." Jessie complained. "I wasn't finished, Keene said. "I further suggest that we reach an understanding that you will

abandon any pet problem solving approach you might fancy and that you will pledge to pursue all cases for B.F.K. and S. with the same emphasis on legal approach that we have used in the past." "I think you are blowing this all out of proportion. I simply asked my staff to heed humanitarian principles in their legal work." "It sems to me," Sarchet said sarcastically, '"that Jessie would be much more comfortable working at the Legal Aid Society." "If that is so," Blanchard said, "she should decide now." "I don't want to leave the company. It still seems to me that the difference in our positions is slight." "Slight," exclaimed Sarchet, "no company could 97

survive at the level of B.F.Ke and S. if it played your humanitarian game. We are in business to make money. We must apply our staff's legal expertise in a profitable manner. Our clients need our services and they must pay for them. That is the only way to operate." "I am sure we have made our points clear today," Blanchard said. "Lets not belabor what we all completely understand. I think that all we need now is a simple 'yes I accept your terms' or 'no, I can no longer work for B.F.K. and S.' from Jessie." "Yes, I accept your terms." 98 business encumbered by a giant lawsuit. Sheila avoided discussing the problem with Mel because he would fall into an almost catatonic state. She didn't know what they would do if the judgment in the case came in for more than their insurance coverage. Kevin and Susanne carried on as best they could also. They now lived a much more frugal existance even though Kevin drove long hours on his new job. The salary he got was no where near what he was earning when he was in business for himself. He was still making payments on his truck, which was sitting idle because he

was unable to get insurance. Along with living expenses for three, and the house payment, they were using up all their savings. Kevin hated to bother Jessie because he knew she was putting in long hours at her job, but he called her more and more frequently. "Jessie, I don't know how much longer I can hold out. If they don't resolve this thing soon, so that I can get my insurance and get back on the road, I'm going to have to sell either the truck or the house." "These things take time." She tried to comfort him. "There are so many separate people involved. The ambulance chaser attorney who filed the original lawsuit 99

has been replaced by two other attorneys representing the relatives of the two dead pausengers. He utill acts for the driver and the other passenger, but he seems to antagonize everyone involved. It would certainly be to his advantage to expedite things, but he seems to be creating delays. I was told confidentially by a voice on the phone at your insurance company's office, that the company feels they will eventually be tagged for the full $500,000 of your coverage so the longer they wait the more interest they can get on that money before they have to pay it out. I wish I could identify that voice." "What can we do?" Kevin pleaded. "If I can get the other lawyers to coordinate our efforts we might be able to convince the insurance company that delay will cost them more in legal fees than they can make in interest. However, they are experts at delay tactics and maintain their own bank of lawyers so it's easier for thm to play the game. If you and Susanne need any money, please let me help." "No thanks, sis. Mom and dad also offered, but we are better off cutting our expenses than going further into debt. It's going to be hard enough getting back on our feet as it is." 100 The country, as a whole, seemed to be experiencing the same disaster-depression then further disaster, further depresmion syndrome that was befalling Mel's family. The assassination. of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King in the 60's, and the gradual sinking into the morass of Viet Nam, in the early 70's, the Watergate

mess and the resignations of Nixon and Agnew, and in the the late 70's the hostage crisis, gas shortages, and runaway inflation. Where would it all end? The only good thing happening for Sheila and Mel during this depressing time was the business. It didn't grow much but it seemed to offer Mel a sanctuary away from Kevin's and their legal difficulties. He semed to bury himself in the everyday operation. Not like he used to, with exhuberance and new ideas, but sufficiently to keep his mind occupied and the business stable. He had several potential buyers come by to look the operation over, but as soon as he told them of the pending lawsuit, they disappeared. However, he and Sheila agreed that as soon as they could, they would sell the business. 101

Mel and Sheila and Kevin's family spent the next two years trying to piece back together the happiness they had created earlier. However, the threat of the two pending lawsuits was depressing, and that depression seemed to strike Mel the hardest. Mel had always been an impatient, do for yourself type who hated waiting for anything. He couldn't u nderstand why, even with Jessie's constant pressuring, that something definitive could not occur so that they could get on with their lives. He and Sheila had decided to sell the business, but soon discovered that buyers were not interested in a -

CHAPTER X

One day during this depressing period, Jessie came home to find Rodney Stapp on her door step. "Rodney, what are you doing here? You look terrible." He mumbled something incoherent and she noticed an empty bottle of whiskey in his left hand. "Let me get the door open, Rodney. We have to get you inside."

She fumbled for her key, finally located the keyhole, but couldn't get the door open beacause of the way Rodney vas propped against it. By dropping her sack of groceries and wedging her right knee against his back she was able to pry open the door. He was really gone. After recovering her oranges and tomatoes which had rolled all over the porch, she set herself to helping Rodney inside. He wasn't all that heavy, but in his total state of relaxation, practically impossible to manuever. His fancy shoes were all scuffed and his 102

$600. suit was filthy. It's smell was so bad, that even his whiskey breath seemed preferable. It was all the more shocking because she had never seen him other than impeccably dressed. She got him as far as the couch without understanding any of his mumbling. She knew that it would be impossible to communicate with him anytime soon, so she made him as comfortable as possible and returned to her own evening. She had planned a simple salad, a jog on the beach, and early bed. The day had been gruesome and she was ezhausted. She ate, cleaned up, jogged a couple miles, and showered. When she checked Rodney it was obvious that he hadn't moved a muscle, so she read until she fell asleep. She was certain that she wouldn't learn anything from him until the next morning. She awoke at her usual time, but curiosity, plus the fact that Rodney might need her help, prompted her to phone her secretary and explain that she would probably be quite late. When she checked the couch she was relieved to find Rodney had changed positions. He appeared to be sleeping it off, so she prepared her first good home-cooked breakfast in a long time. She was just finishing when she sensed a presence in the doorway behind her. There was Rodney, leaning his head

103 against the door jam. "Can I borrow your shower?" he moaned. "Certainly. It's right this way. I've got this old pair of swim trunks that Kevin left here and you can put on this terry cloth robe. A shower wouldn't do you

much good if you put those dirty clothes of yours back on." "Thanks." He stayed in the shower for a good 20 minutes and when he reappeared in the doorway he looked much improved physically. However, Jessie burst out laughing because the white robe reached about 2/3 of the way down his arms and about 1/2 of the way down his legs. "Could I hare some of that coffee?--Black please." "Pardon me for laughing. I know how you must feel, but you do look comical in that robe. Get me your clothes and we'l1 drop them in the washing machine while you tell me the reason why you passed out on my doorstep." He came back with all of his clothing and threw everything into her washer. "Wait, she said. "That's too good of a suit to put in there We've got a quicky cleaners up the street and we---"

104 "Just wash it all." He interrupted. I m not going to have much use for fancy suits any longer." "What's that supposed to mean? what about B.F.K.& S.?" "As of today, I no longer work for them. 1 m heading back to Detroit--my roots--where I belong." "Care to tell me about it?" She asked.

"Sure, why not? Last night when I was operating on a quart of whiskey and the lowest level of my subconscious I must hare ended up here as a testimonial that you are the only lawyer at B.F.K.& S. I could trust. I hope I don' t get you kicked out of the neighborhood." Rodney said. "Don't be silly. Newport Beach sees far worse than drunks on doorsteps." "Black drunks on white ladies door steps?" "Much worse. Why do you no longer work with us?" "I'm not sure I ever 'worked with you'. My position at B.F.K.& S. was decorative. Whenever black fitted the decor and my color could swing a little

business their way, I was utilized---no, exploited." "We're all exploited. That's why we spent all those hours memorizing texts, to get training we could sell to a client." "Yeh, exploiting our training was expected. But 105

exploiting my race---and your femininity?" "I don t feel that at all Rodney." "Come on Jessie. You know that most of the causes that our office refers to your division are sent to you because the client likes the idea of a woman division head. Linda Smyrk admits that Sarchet utilizes her the same way. And you haven't seen Darlene Taylor. She does have a law degree--barely. Sarchet uses her talents a little differently on certain clients." "I think you are being too sensitive. I know that there are personal traits that should not be used as competitive devices, but I assure you that in my division we compete with legal skills." "I'm sure that's true of the way you run your division, but I've already explained how the home office uses you whenever they can." Rodney said. "I can't believe that you would leave us because of this." "Oh I'm leaving because of racial and sexual competitiveness, believe me. I found a combination of the two that Sarchet felt was detrimental. There's no way to exploit black homosexuality." "Are you saying you're gay?" Jessie asked.

"That's right. Don't get me wrong, the company utilises gay lawyers too. They have three in the firm. 106

It s black gay lawyers that are not in demand." "Rodney, I m sure this can be straightened out. Let me talk to Sarchet." "No. I'm catching the first flight I can get back to Detroit."

"If you won't work for us, I'm sure there are other law firms that would be overjoyed to hire someone of your talent." "Yes, I'm sure there are." Rodney laughed.

"I meant your legal talents. why are you so sure they are only interested in your race?" "Because, the last thing Sarchet said was, 'Get out of here you God damned nigger fag. I ll see to it that you never get a job in California." 107 XI CHAPTER XI

It wasn't easy for Jessie during this period of time. She was putting almout super-human effort into her brother's and her father's cases, and at the same time carrying on her duties at B.F.K. and S. The frustrations she felt in trying so hard to help her family were compounded by the realization that many others involved in their own battles with the law were facing like frustrations without inside help. Her attempt to get her colleagues to try more humanitarian approaches to their cases now looked ludicrous. No matter how benevolent the approach, the system had deteriorated to an almost unworkable state. The biggest problem, she felt, was the interminable delays. Finally, for her parent's case, the delays came to an end. The trial date which had been scheduled twice before and then postponed for one reason or other had finally arrived. Jessie took a leave of absence from B.F.K. and S. so that she would be able to devote full time to her parent's defense. she had more or less worked out a modus viviendi with her dad's old attorney 108 and the attorney for his insurance company. The trial started off slowly, with the plaintiff's attorney calling all sorts of 'experts' to testify. There were the wheel experts, the skatetruck experts, the assembly experts and finally the medical experts. Then Mel was finally called. Jessie and Mel's old attorney got quite a shock. They heard the plaintiff's attorney say, "Isn't it true Mr. Meir, that you have gone to Pasadena to visit the injured boy's parents?" ''Yes."

"How many times?" "Two or three." "If you would speak a little louder please." "Two or three times." "For what purpose did you go?" "To express my condolences and to find out how the boy was doing." Mel answered. "Wasn't there another reason?" "I gave them some money. They were---." "That's all, thank you. Your witness." "No questions." "Dad," Jessie was saying, "why didn't you tell us you had gone to see those people?" "I didn't think it was important.I just wanted 109 to help." "You as much as admitted that you felt responsibility," said the old lawyer. "1 think we're lost," said the insurance lawyer. "I understand they are going to bring the boy into the court room tomorrow for the jury to see. That ought to just about do it." And it did too. The jury deliberated for 4 hours and then returned a verdict of product liability against Mel and Sheila's company for $500,000, and against Jack Shurley's company for $500,000. The automobile insurance company and the city of Pasadena had settled before the trial. Sheila and Mel decided to sell the house in Laguna Beach. California land values had skyrocketed throughout the 70's, particularly along the Southern California coast. They owed less than $15,000., and they could probably get in the neighborhood of $300,000. for such an outstanding home. Mel said, "Zings Sporting Goods Company offered $750,000 for our business with $150,000 down, if the lawsuit was settled. I think that the money from the house, the cash down on the business and our savings should just about cover the part of the judgment that the insurance doesn't pay."

110 "We can do it," Sheila said bravely. "And we won t have that damn business to worry about any more." They both accepted their fate rather well. They put a small down payment on a one bedroom condo in Laguna Hills. "What the hell," Mel said, "it s time we started to enjoy ourselves some." Jessie was ecstatic at the positive attitude she detected in both of her parents. It seemed as though some monstrous burden had been lifted from both of their shoulders. She was surprised when they showed up at her apartment one Saturday morning and invited her to walk with them on the beach. Jessie jumped at the opportunity, since her own soires along her beloved beach had become all too infrequent, and she welcomed the chance to discuss her parents future plans. "I'll bet you two are really going to live it up now that you're free as birds," she started. "Yes," Sheila answered, "we'll be able to camp and boat and visit all those places we never had time for." "Daddy, you can spend that long vacation on Lake Powell that you've always talked about." "Well, I think we will start off slowly. I've neglected the boat and the camper for so long, they're going to need a lot of repairs. Just walking on the 111 beach like this with you is a real luxury. I'll bet you're glad to have our problems off your shoulders so that you can get back to that career you're building. "Don't be silly, dad. I was glad to help. I'm just sorry I couldn't have been more effective." "All's well that ends well," Sheila said. "We've got our condo, enough to live on, and the luxury of time to do things like walk on the beach with our daughter. So you go back to your job and finish your climb to the top." "I'm really disillusioned with my job and what I've seen of my whole profession." Jessie said. "That's because you've had the frustrations of trying to perform your Job plus the burden of helping the family." Sheila consoled. "Actually, you're right in a way. I am frustrated, but it's more with the realization that the

law is so innept in helping people with problms." "How dear?" Her dad asked. "Well it's not just the delays and the injustices that you and Kevin suffered, but the lack of focus in all of the legal matters I've worked on." "Focus?" "Yes, the lack of focus on what a legal system should be all about. Perfect justice for everyone is 112

obviously impossible, but the striving for the maximum justice for the greatest number kept me struggling to master that huge body of jurisprudence at school. My professor stressed the search for justice as the underlying basis for all law, but since I've gotten out in the real world, I've yet to encounter one lawyer who even remotely considered justice as having anything to do with his job." Mel stopped and looked out at the waves. "I thought it was me," he said. "I felt like I had been transported to some alien world where the trial was being conducted by some non-human species that spent hours worrying about rhetoric and format, but didn't care a lick about human beings." "As a matter of fact," professors always joked---at joke then---that lawyers are trained to argue either side Jessie said, "one of my least I thought it was a flawed because they are of an argument for money."

"That would not be the kind of training I would use to teach truth and justice to a child," Sheila added laughing. "Maybe," Mel went on, "our legal system should be socialised." Jessie was shocked. "Dad, you of all people. You've always extolled the virtues of free enterprise 113 and pointed to the failures of communism." "I hope I'm not such a dogmatic free enterpriser that I would be unable to recognise a failure in our system, and maybe borrow from some other system if they had the answer. Mind you, I'm not saying we have failed, I'm just saying that what I've seen is not working---and you agreed with me." "But socialize law? I've heard of socialized

medicine." "Yes, and look at the good that came from saying to the doctors---If you can't help us find a way to get health care to all the people, we will consider socialized medicine. Their fees were such that only the rich could afford proper care. I'm sure there's still room for improvement, but we've found some ways of getting the people better health care. The post office is socialized and actually free enterprise is moving in on their territory because they are so inefficient. It should work both ways. From my standpoint the important thing is giving the people the best government possible." "How would socialized law work?" "I don't know, I haven't thought about it. The court facilities are already provided by the government, the judges are all governmental employees, and the 114

jurors are citizens. I guess it would only require making the attorneys governmental employees also." "All of them?" "I wouldn't think so. Most professional police officers work for some segment or other of government, but there are still many in law enforcement who are privately employed. Criminal prosecutors are government District Attorneys, but civil matters are usually handled by private lawyers." "A system that's part free enterprise and part socialized?" She asked. "Maybe. And the many instances where the lawyer says---'I can't advise you to sue for that traffic accident because my fees would total more than all the damage'---is not duplicated by the investigating police officer. He investigates because it s his job." Mel said. "I wouldn't like it if a policeman told me that it would cost me more than my car is worth to investigate my accident." Jessie admitted. "Maybe your career should be devoted to improving the law instead of practicing it. All I m saying is the legal system should not be the biggest threat to the success of our citizenry." Mel said. "I'm always amazed at the incongruency of the capitalist who spends his time trying to destroy competition, or the democrat (small d) who tries to limit freedom. Give the lawyers some competition and see if it helps the law."

"Perhaps you're right." Jessie mused. One day, about a month after all of the selling and moving and paying was finished, Sheila had a call from their insurance man. "I'm sorry Mrs. Meir, but 115

your health insurance was a group plan through your business. Now that the business is sold, that insurance company will not renew for individuals. Should I contact another company?" "Yes Joe, and please do it as soon as possible. We've had enough catastrophies in this family." After checking with several health insurers. they were forced to take a policy that restricted coverage for Mel's hypertension and Sheila's back. Their doctor had treated Sheila for a ruptured disc and had recently put Mel on medication for his 'blood pressure. "I tried," the insurance man said. "I know you had no restrictions on the previous policy, but as new subscribers now, the companies all go by your doctor's records. At least I got assurance by this company that after one year they will drop the restrictions if your doctor certifies that there have been no recurrances with Mel's blood pressure problem or your back problem.

116 XII CHAPTER XII

As soon as the trial concluded, Jessie found out from her dad that his fatal mistake of trying to help the injured boy s family had been prompted by an attorney from the Legal Aid Society. It seems that the attorney had contacted Mel sometime during the five years of delay. The attorney handling the case for the plaintiff was from Beverly Hills, and the man from the Legal Aid Society made it clear to Mel that he was not part of the case, but had been contacted by the injured boy s parents after the case had been delayed several times and they were unable to pay their bills. Jessie was furious, and highly suspicious of the lawyer s motives. He could have been hired by the plaintiff s to compromise her dad's position. First chance she got, she went to the Legal Aid Society and stormed into their office. "My name im Jessie Meir, I'm an Attorney with

Blanchard, Formost, Keene, and Sarchet and I want to see the person in charge here." Before the receptionist could react, a tall very 117 handsome man about 40 years old with long wavy black hair tinged with grey, appeared at the open office door behind the receptionist. "Hi", he said to her. "I've been expecting you." He turned to the receptionist. "I'll be gone for a bit." "Then back to Jessie. "You look like you could use a drink---I'll get my coat." With that, he grabbed a jacket from inside the office, took a totally startled Jessie by the arm and hustled her toward the door. "I saw you at the trial. I figured that sooner or later someone from the defense would be here. I'm glad it's you." He said. Jessie was not in the habit of being caught at a loss for words, but his startlingly good looks, disarming smile, and supremely confident manner took her aback momentarily. Before they got out the door, she said, "Who are you? How do you know why I m here?" "All in due time." He said escorting her onto the sidewalk. " There's a quiet little place around the corner." It was a crummy part of town, with bars on practically every corner. They turned right at the end of the building and walked into a small sandwich shop with picnic tables and sawdust on the floor. He walked 118 up to the counter asking over his shoulder, "Beer or wine?" "Beer," she heard herself say. He escorted her with two iced mugs of tap beer to a table in the corner. "No martinis here, I'm afraid, Jessie." "Now you know my name. Who are you?" "My name is Dan Jordan. I'm the person in charge' of the Legal Aid Office that we just came from. I'm also the person who took Mel Meir to the injured boy's parents. And I'm also the person who sat in the back of the courtroom admiring a beautiful attorney for

the defense named Jessie Meir. Any relationship to Mel Meir?" Awestruck by this intriguing person, Jessie momentarily forgot her fury. "He' s My father." Suddenly remembering what she came for, she said bluntly, "If you were sitting in that courtroom watching them crucify my father, why didn't you step forward? Were you hired to lead my father to compromise his case?" "Ouch!" He said. "You go right for the throat." You must be a terrific trial lawyer." "You haven't answered my question." "Yes, counselor," he smiled that disarming smile, 119

"I knew that Mel Meir didn't have a chance and I wasn t hired to lead him astray. When they wheeled that pathetic little vegetablised child in front of that jury, they would have won the case no matter what anyone else did. That fancy attorney from Beverly Hills knew that. Do you know that he took 50% of all the money that was awarded to that poor family?" Jessie gasped audibly. "What I was trying to do," he continued, "was to find a way for those people to stave off starvation and pay for the necessary treatment for that child. Your father is one of the finest men I've ever met. To be caught in a meat grinder the way he was---an innocent victim of a corrupt system---and still have the compassion to offer a helping hand. Do you know that he was the only one in that miserable courtroom, other than the jury, who gave a damn about that child or his parents?" "That includes me." She looked down at her beer. "That includes all of the lawyers on both sides---and the judge." Dan corrected. "This is the second time I've come face to face with the ramifications of my profession, and I don't like what I see." They finished their beer. "I ve got an 120

appointment in about ten minutes," he said. "If you could wait for about half an hour, we could discuss this some more---maybe have some dinner." "No thanks," She said, emotionally drained, but thank you for the beer." "Perhaps another time? Could I call you?" She wrote her phone number on the back of her business card and handed it to him. As she walked out the door, he glanced down at the card and whistled softly. "Head of B.F.K.& S. in Orange County," he said to himself.

It looked like Kevin's case was finally coming to trial. He had long since sold his truck. There was no way that he could have made payments on the truck and the house on the salary he was getting. Suzanne had worked only sporadically at the dress shop and their savings were exhausted. Money troubles began to take a toll on their marriage. "I wouldn't mind skimping and saving if we had something good to work for," Suzanne said. " The way it is now, we keep working and saving and still we're losing everything." "I know, honey. We just have to hang on for a 121 little while longer." "It's been almost six years and we still don't know if they are going to take everything we have left. What are we working for?" Suzanne cried. "For a chance to start over again." Kevin said. "What kind of a chance is that? You don't even have your truck anymore. The dishwasher doesn't work, my washing machine is falling apart, Kim needs shoes, we all need clothes." She said hopelessly. "I'm doing the best I can," he replied angrily. Don't you ever get tired of harping on the same subjects" He stomped out and slamed the door.

Jessie couldn't get Dan Jordan out of her mind.

She wondered why he hadn't called. He had seemed interested, and she'd given him her home phone number---something she very seldom did---but it had been three days and he hadn't called. She was irritated vith herself. she had never gotten atwitter over a man, even when she was in college, and she could think of a lot of reasons why she shouldn't now. He was probably married, all of the good ones were at this age. He was just a flirt, anyone that good looking probably flirted a lot. He didn't like her---but he had asked for her phone 122

number. Jessie got angrier with herself. "I must be going through my second childhood," she said aloud. Just at that minute, the phone rang. "Hello," Jessie answered. "You must go to dinner with me so I can explain why I didn't call you sooner" She instantly recognized the deep tantalising voice, and her heart skipped a beat. "Who is this?" She asked calmly. "Guess!" "Oh Dan, I knew it was you, I recognised your voice. I don't know why I pulled that little girl trick." "I'll pick you up at seven, O.K.?" "Fine," she said, and gave him directions to her apartment. He was there promptly at seven, and when she opened the door he gave her a bouquet and a coursage. "Where are we going, someplace fancy? Do I need to change?" "I figured you were used to the finer things in life, so I made reservations at the Ritz." "Whatever gave you that idea?" "Good old fashioned deduction. I'm positive that 123 B.F.K.& S. pays a good salary to the head of its Orange County division and you don't impress executives by

wining and dining them at Sizzler." "I think you'd be surprised at just what impresses me. Here, help me with my flowers, the're beautiful, thank you very much." They went out to his car, a three year old Ford. "Sorry, I couldn't swing a new Corvette to impress you with. The Legal Aid Society lags slightly in it's salary structure. However, they do pay almost enough to keep a single guy in hamburgers and shelter." "You're making me feel guilty. Why do we have to eat at the Ritz?" "I'll tell you when we get there." They had a scrumptuous meal of red snapper, rice pilaf, and asparagass. Over their cappucinno, he looked into her eyes and said, "You haven't asked me why I haven't called you sooner." "You said you would tell me when you were ready." "So I did. You're a remarkable lady, and I certainly want to see more of you. I fully intended to phone you the day after we met, but after you left, I got a phone call and the next morning I was on a plane to Florida. That's the reason we had to come to the Ritz, I wanted to be sure that we got off to a better 124

start. If we come here often, though, we'll have to use your credit card and not mine. She laughed. "First lets dispel this faulty notion of yours that I'm obsessed with money. You're looking at a normal---I hope---down to earth, Laguna Beach girl." "I don't think I'll ever be able to stop looking at her." He said dreamily. Jessie seemed to ignore his comment. "How about you," she asked, "Did you come from around here?" "Hardly. I'm from about as far inland as you can get. A little town in Colorado named Nederland. Did you ever hear of it?" "I don't think so, where is it?" "About 20 miles up the canyon above Boulder---it's at 8300 feet." They were both totally absorbed now. "How did you

find your way to Southern California?" she asked. "There seems to be a natural affinity between the mountain folk and the beach folk. The skiers and the surfers." He said. She laughed, "You must be right, there's always a large contingent of Coloradoans in Laguna." Dan couldn't take his eyes off Jessie. It was as though he was afraid that if he blinked, she might

125 disappear. "I grew up on snow skis---was actually a candidate for the Olympic ski team---" He went on,"but I had an accident.The doctor recomended that I stay off skis---then shortly after that my wife died. It was too difficult staying there with the snow beckoning and my wife gone so I came to the beach." "Did the good doctor allow you to surf?" Jessie asked. "My accident involved a badly rotated knee---among other things, but that was the deciding factor against continueing to ski. He said that if I were to reinjure the knee, I would be crippled for life. I don t imagine he s too ecstatic about it, but I joined the San Onofre Surf Club. It seemed to me that the water would strengthen my leg and there was no binding on the surfboard to twist my knee again." Jessie found herself hanging on his every word. She loved listening to him talk. "Enough about me," he said, "Tell me, how did a beautiful young creature like you get to be an executive with Blanchard, Formost, Keene, and Sarchet?" "Young, I m not," she laughed again, "but that beauty is in the eye of the beholder so I you. I graduated Stanford Law School in 1974, the firm was opening its Orange County office. floor you might say." they say thank just when Ground

126

"Do you like your job?" He asked. She sat looking at him for a long moment. "I know this probably sounds Silly," she finally said, "but noone has ever asked me that before. And what probably sounds even sillier---I don't think I do. Do you like

your job?" He didn't have to think about it at all. "Some parts of it can be very rewarding, and some parts can be extremely frustrating. I assume you were asking if I liked my work with Legal Aid." "Do you have another job?" She asked. "Yes, I'm president of a non-profit corporation called, Public Legal Education Association---PLEA, and I write and publish legal self help textbooks."Dan answered. "Cute acronym," she said. "When do you have the time for all of that?" "Actually, I am spread too thin. Would you like to go someplace else for dessert or dancing?" "I'd like to walk out on the pier. Jessie said. He paid the bill, and they walked the two blocks to the pier. The night was gorgeous, full moon, gentle breeze, the sound of the surf. For the most part, however, it was lost on these two who seemed to have eyes only for each other. They were the only ones on the pier and they sat down on a bench out near the end. 127

"What else do you do with your time besides work and surf?" Jessie asked. "My interests have always been pretty much tied to nature, and as I said, I'm spread too thin. I keep promising myself that I'm going to take some time off and go to the mountains. I can completely lose myself up there." "Are you a climber?" "Not the piton and rope type. I put on my backpack and head up any trail where I can be alone. The trees, the streams, the wildlife, the stars at night, they overpower me. I also ride my motorcycle for the same exhilaration." Dan said. "We had motorcycles. Family trail bikes actually---l85 Susukis. We took them camping with us every summer." "We?" "My mom and dad and my brother." "You all went camping?" His eyebrows rose.

"Not the backpacking type like you do. when we pulled into a campground, the entire camp usually turned out to watch us unfold. My dad pulled the boat with a large pickup truck and camper. He made a winch that slipped into a bracket in the boat and he winched the motorcycles in and out of the boat. We took the lounges 128

and chairs and all of the comforts of home. "Did you ride the motorcycles?" Dan asked. "Are you kidding," she laughed. "The biggest battle in camp was always who was going to ride those bikes. I won my share. I think I ve been on every trail within 100 miles of Shasta." "You climbed Mt. Shasta on motorcycles?" "No, Lake Shasta. That's where we went for vacation every summer." Jessie explained. "I can't believe this," Dan said as he stared incredulously into her eyes, "I must be creating you out of my subconscious. You're too good to be real." She laughed again and tossed her long blonde hair. He followed her every movement as if his life depended on it. "In the interest of full disclosure," she said, "you will have to see me chew out a subordinate." "I couldn't imagine such a thing. That must mean that you are not being created by my mind." Dan laughed. They sat there totally engrossed in each other's anecdotes. It wasn't like her tryst at the beach with John years ago, where each was content to quietly enjoy being in each other's arms and watching the moon and the surf and the sand. This was two intelects melding. They both sensed that physical embrace was inevitable, 129

but for now each was engrossed in mental absorption. "Why don't you like your job?" Dan asked again. Jessie paused for a long time, just as she had the first time he had asked that question. "You seem to be pulling things from the deep recesses of my mind, things that I've never faced before. I think I'm disillusioned

with my profession. I don't know what I expected the practice of law to be, but back in law school it all seemed so noble." "It was noble." Dan said. "Mesopotamia, the Greeks, the Romans, British common law, our constitution and the founding fathers creating a society based on laws." "That's it," she said."I expected to help people achieve justice and create stability in their lives,and all I see is injustice and instability and the law destroying people. Society gave us these badges and a body of authority to help society function, just as it gave policemen badges and a portion of the people's business to be responsible for, and the doctors have licenses and are charged with protecting the people's health, and the teachers have credentials and are responsible for education. And I look at all this---the teachers aren't perfect, but they are constantly vorking to improve---the policemen risk their lives and in many ways are harder on each other than they are on the 130 crooks they chase---the doctors make mistakes like everyone else, but they have their Hippocratic oath and they've achieved honor attempting to live up to it." She paused, and he stared at her enthralled. "What about us," she continued, "the whole legal profession? I don't hear any of my colleagues uttering oathes of honor. All I've seen is a headlong pursuit of the almighty dollar. Lawyers have abused the trust that society gave us---to help achieve justice for all. They've paid us more than any of the other professions, and what have they gotten for their money? In our headlong pursuit of power, we've taken over their government and subverted their constitution. The founding fathers knew that throughout history, coruption had always led to power being concentrated into the hands of a single group so they separated the power into judiciary, legislative, and executive. We've destroyed that principle by working our way into all branches and then letting our own interests dominate the laws we make and the way we interpret and enforce them." Her eyes were bright and intense and she was breathing heavily. "You must have thought about this for a long time," he said calmly. "No, I didn't even know that I felt this way. 131

What a silly tirade here in the moonlight. You must think I'm crazy." Jessie said sheepishly. "Silly? No! I'm only sorry it was wasted on the seagulls. I think I love you and I don't even know if you are available---I haven t even kissed you yet." At that, he pulled her into his arms. They kissed passionately, then kissed again. Between kisses, she muttered "I'm available."

132 XII CHAPTER XIII

Her life was never the same again. It was as if the portion of her that loves had been imprisoned somewhere. She had been incomplete, and now she was returned to her entirety. She felt, not like an entirely new person for in many ways she was the same, but more like a complete person. Her love for her handsome lawyer was impatient, like it was trying to make up for its long imprisonment, She loved everything about him, all his mannerisms that had first attracted her, and also his philanthropy, his social conscience, his empathy for his fellow man. She was totally enraptured. They dated twice more, and for neither one of them was there tbe slightest doubt that they would spend the rest of their lives together. Jessie informed Dan on their last date that she had to go to Chicago. Her brother's trial was, after six years of waiting, finally going to be held. They both had such supreme confidence in each other's love that nothing else needed to be said. Jessie and Kevin flew to Chicago. She knew that

133

the trial would not be simple nor short---not with so many people involved. She had also decided that her days with B.F.K.& S. were numbered, so she took a three week leave of absence. After experiencing the tremendous pain of dredging her innermost feelings from the bottom of her soul, she was incapable of continuing in that job. She didn't know just how, but she knew that she must spend the rest of her career trying to improve the legal system. The trial in Chicago was a farce. there were so

many lawyers and so much confusion that it stretched out to four weeks. Jessie helped Kevin's lawyer produce enough witnesses to establish that the old man in the Cadilac, and the driver of the flatbed truck were the instigators of the accident. However, the condition of Kevin's truck had been questioned---although how that in any way contributed to his being rear ended in broad daylight was not made clear---the state highway department's roadwork that created the slowdown was condemned---the lack of safety barriers at the roadwork was cited as a contributory factor---and even the fact that Kevin had stopped at a truck stop that sold beer, although they were unable to establish that Kevin had had any beer because he hadn't. The results of the long trial were awards 134

to the two people who lived totalling 5 million dollars. and 3 million to the relatives of the dead pasuengers. Jessie did not know what portion of the awards was utilized to pay all of the attorney's fees, but felt that it must have been substantial. One of the lower level types had followed her around throughout most of the trial. He confided in her at one point that his firm had one of the most lucrative con games in history. He said that whenever any accident occured that caused injury or loss of life, his firm would dig up connections that anyone might have with the accident. It didn't make a bit of difference how remote the connection might be. The party would be good for a settlement or a judgement award of which his firm usually got half. Jessie wanted to ask him if he ever gave any thought to the ruined lives that such an irresponsible approach created, but she felt she already Knew the answer. When are the people going to realize that we are all in jeopardy of falling victim to a system like that. Kevin's insurance company paid out the $500,000 minimum that they were liable for. The orange shipper that owned the trailer that Kevin had been hauling had $1,000,000 in coverage, which they paid. Kevin sold his house and his car, but could only raise $29,000. He was 135

forced to declare bankruptcy, and the state of Illinois under the 'deep pockets principle' was stuck with the remainder of the judgement. The state and the trailer

company's earlier settlement offer both were rejected prior to the trial. While this was going on in Chicago, John Sarchet was very active at B.F.K.& S. He had never forgiven Jessie for replacing him as head of the Orange County office. In his mind, he could have had his choice of the personnel at B.F.K.& S. to be his assistant at the new division back in 1974. He had most generously offered the position to this rookie law school graduate, and she had repaid his kindness by acing him out of his job. He hated working in Los Angeles. There, he was the most junior partner and they let him know it. In Orange County, he had been top man. He had followed Jessie's career from the time she had botched the first case he had assigned to her, untill this latest leave of absence for family business. The way she had parlayed that first messed up assignment into the promotion that gave her his job was pure luck. He knew also that part of the reason for her promotion was the fact that the other partners felt that a woman in that position gave the firm a decided edge in certain cases. He was all for exploiting sex, race, religion, 136 or whatever was necessary to compete in this dog eat dog business, but to choose dvision heads on this principle was ludicrous---especially when it was done at his expense. At any rate, he saw his chance to repay her at the end of the next board meeting. Morgan Blanchard had finished with the new business and said "Does anyone have any old business at this time?" Sarchet waited a moment to make it seem spontaneous and not planned. "Mr. Blanchard, I was informed by Larry Mitts at our Orange County office that Jessie Meir is on leave of absence again." "Yes, I think that is so. She is on a personal leave." Blanchard said. Sarchet continued. "Larry told me that she is back in Chicago acting as an attorney in an accident case." "I seem to remember her saying that her brother is a truck driver and had an accident in Illinois. That would be personal business." Blanchard said. "But is it personal business to defend her brother for six years? Most of it on company time." "I wasn't aware of this , were you Keene?" Sarchet zeroed in now. "She also spent five years

defending her father in a product liability case--again 137 on company time." "Are you sure?" Blanchard asked. "I ve watched her since we worked together in Orange County. I tried to explain to you when I found she had been appointed head of that office in my absence that it was a mistake. Why, on the very first case I assigned to her she showed a flagrant disregard of company interests. That was a property case involving county government, an industrialist, and a large developer. I fully expected it to produce substantial revenue to this firm for a long time. Instead, she engineered a settlement." "Yes, Yes, Sarchet, you've mentioned that before. But the industrialist switched the legal work for three businesses to us and we made even more." "My point is that, that was a lucky development. It could just as well have not happened and our loss of business would have been substantial. She did not show good business judgment." "He's right," Foremost spoke up. "We agreed early on in the formation of this law firm that we are here to make money for the firm. Since I've been here, whenever we have had to make the choice between a frugal maneuver for a client or a sound business approach, we have always opted for the business approach. what money you

138 might save for one client would simply have to be made up on another. To remain competitive in this business takes a lot of income." Blanchard said, "You re right, of course. The very fact that we are having to discuss this most confidential of all policies proves there is something amiss. As I remember, we overlooked Miss Meirs impropriety when she lectured her staff on being more humanitarian. Anyone who does not really adapt to the policies of this firm either written or unwritten should be terminated. I'll entertain such a motion." The motion was made and passed unanimously Sarchet had generously offered, at the end of the board meeting to summon Miss Meirs to his office as soon as she returned and forthwith terminate her employment

with B.F.K. and S. He agreed to return to his old job at the head of the Orange County office until a permanent replacment could be found.

Jessie and Kevin flew into Orange County Airport the same evening of the day the trial ended. Dan was the only one there to greet them. He and Jessie 139

embraced warmly and with a sad look on his face he offered Kevin his hand. "I m sure sorry. Is Suzanne coming to pick you up?" "No, she was very upset at the verdict. appreciate a ride home." Kevin said. I d.

They picked up the luggage and started down I-5 to San Clemente. "It wasn't as though we weren t expecting it," Kevin began. "After the initial realization 6 years ago that a completely innocent victim can get caught between the insurance industry and the legal profession and be destroyed, it was just a matter of waiting. We knew early on that we were going to lose everything. I just don't understand the cruelty of making us wait for six years to start over again." "If there is anything we can do to help---?" "I'll let you know," Kevin said. After dropping Kevin off, Dan asked, "Are you hungry?" "No darling, just exhausted. We didn't even have time to clean up before we caught the plane. We went from the court building to the hotel and got our luggage and just barely made it to O'Hare in time. Please let's go to my place."

140 "O.K., will Kevin be all right?" Dan asked. "Yes, I'm sure of it. If it weren't for Suzanne taking it so hard, I think he would be downright elated that it's all over. We talked on the plane. I'm very proud of my little brother. You should hear his plans

for getting back on his feet. He's very together, but he needs Susanne and Kim. If she's got any sense, and I think she has, she'll snap out of it now and get on with living." They got to Jessie's apartment and she headed straight to the shower. While she was luxuriating in the shower, Dan went to the all night store around the corner and bought a bottle of Blue Nun. He bought a few snacks also since the cupboard was bare at Jessie's. When he got back, she was still in the shower. He poked his head in the bathroom and said, "You haven't fallen asleep have you?" "No, dear. Sorry I m so slow but this feels so good. Why don't you go get us some wine?" "O. K.'' When she came out in her white terry cloth robe, she found him stretched out on the floor in front of the stereo with the music on and two glasses of wine on the coffee table. She kneeled beside him, and kissed him softly on the lips. He opened his eyes, pulled her down 141 to him and they kissed passionately. It was several minutes before either could say anything. Finally, Jessie said, "I've never needed anyone more than I need you at this moment." "I've missed you," he said as they kissed even longer. As Dan crawled across the carpet to the coffee table for the two glasses of wine, he asked, "Are you too tired to talk?" "I'm fine now, I must be in a state of euphoria." He leaned back against the couch. She took her wine glass and then snuggled against his shoulder. He put his arms around her and whispered, "what I have to say could wait until tomorrow." "No, I insist, let's talk." "O.K., the bad part first. Your secretary called me. She told me that she was in communication vith you in Chicago, but did not want to burden you with this problem." "Maureen called you? What problem?" She sat up. "Just relax, I'll tell you. She wanted me to reach you before you came into the office. Sarchet has

come back, he's working in your office, and the entire staff is afraid that he is replacing you." He waited for a moment. "Did you hear what I said?"

142 "Good!" was all she said without even looking up. "Good? That was supposed to be the bad news." "Oh! is there more good news?" Jessie asked. "It will be if you say yes. I want to marry you." Now she sat up, "I thought you would never ask." The next day at the Orange County office of B.F.K. and S., Sarchet sat at the big desk in Jessie s office. Jessie's secretary had told him that Jessie had called to say she would be in around 11:00. Sarchet surprised himself at the pleasure the enticipation of firing her was giving him. At exactly 11:30, Jessie opened the door of her office. "Oh, Mr. Sarchet, I didn't know you were here." without giving him a chance to reply she went on, "Just as well. I was going to call your office and make an appointment." "This is my----. "Since you are here," she overrode him, "I can tell you my news now. I'm going to be married. I would like to end my employment with B.F.K. and S. as soon as possible--Oh, I realize I should give 30 days, and I will if you insist, but I would so appreciate it if the firm could release me right away."

143 "Release you?--Right away?--of course we release you right away--You're--" "Oh, thank you," she said and immediately turned for the door. "I'll never forget what you've done for me." "You're fired! What I meant was you're fired," he screamed at an empty doorway.

Jessie went directly back to her apartment after

'quitting her job'. She didn't want to carry on her charade with the rest of the staff. She genuinely liked most of the people there, after working with them these past several years. Tomorrow would be soon enough to go back to the office, clear out her things, and say goodbye to her friends. Shortly after she got home, the phone rang. "Hello." It was her dad and he sounded awful. "Hi honey, you're back. I don't suppose you and Kevin had a good time---it must have been bad." "It wasn't too bad, dad. I think Kevin is happy that it's over." Jessie said. "It's not over." His voice very low, almost inaudible. "It's never going to be over." 144 "Yes it is dad. Kevin's going to be fine." "That's good dear. Glad you're home. Goodbye." Jessie stood there staring at the phone. She thought he was reconciled to Kevin losing his case. What could it mean? She dialed her folk's number. "Hello," Sheila answered. "Hi, mom. Dad just called and he sounded strange. Is everything all right?" "He just called you? I didn t know---he has been depressed about some things." "Are you going to be home this afternoon?" "Yes dear." "Good, I'll be over a little later." "That would be nice, dear." She straightened up the apartment and ran to the store. Then she called Dan to tell him where she was going and make certain that he had her folk's phone number. She jumped in her car and drove to Laguna Hills. Her mother answered the door, they embraced and she asked "Where's dad?" "He went to the store. Said something about we're out of wine and Jessie's coming'." "Aha," Jessie said, "my reputation precedes me."

They both laughed, then Jessie said, "Dad didn't sound like someone enjoying retirment. Is there

145 anything wrong?" "He gets in those moods lately."Sheila said."Today,nothing's right. Kevin lost, the insurance won't drop our waivers, the business payment is way behind, we're low on money. You're the only good thing that's happened to us today. "You sound depressed too, mom. We expected Kevin to lose, but he's going to be fine--we had a long talk on the plane." "I know, he called this morning." "What's with the insurance?" Jessie asked. "When we sold the business, we were forced to get new health insurance. The new company put restrictions for my back and your dad's blood pressure on the policy. The insurance man assured us that the restrictions could be waived if we went for one year without any recurrances. It' s been a year and old Doc Snyder wrote a letter to the insurance company saying that dad's blood pressure was under control with medication and my back is fine. Well, yesterday we got a letter from the insurance company refusing to waive the restrictions." "That sounds illegal." Jessie said. They can't say one thing to sell a policy and then change it after it's sold. Maybe they just made a mistake. I'll call the insurance man. How come your buyers are so far behind in making their payments to you from the sale of the 146

business?" "In order to get more cash from the sale of the skateboard business, your dad agreed that the entire down payment would be considered as the first year's monthly installments." Sheila explained. "You haven t been getting any payments all year?" "It doesn't cost nearly as much to live as it did, and we borrowed some from the bank." "I didn't know that, mom." "Oh we've had a good year. We've been to the

museums, the zoos, and all the places we were too busy to see all those years. I think that's what brought your dad's blood pressure down. But today he sems to have fallen back into depression." "Well, maybe we can cheer him up. I ve got good news." Jessie said. They waited till Mel came back from the store and then Jessie told them that she and Dan were getting married. They hadn't set the exact date, but it would be soon. She had quit her job at B.F.K. and S., but was going to start a private practice. She made her dad promise that they would get together tomorrow to discuss the late payments on the business. All this was just what Mel needed. "I wish I d gotten champaign." He said. 147

When she got back to the apartment, Dan was there. They both roared with laughter as she told him about the Sarchet episode. How she knew that he was going to fire her, how she wouldn't give him a chance to talk, his flabbergasted expressions, and finally her leaving before he could say anything. She was more sober when she told him about her family's troubles. But she said she was going to go over the payment problem with her dad tomorrow after she finished saying goodbye at her former office. She would also go over their financial problems at that time. "I thought they were doing great with a big monthly payment from the business." Jessie said. "I didn't tell you this last night," he said, "because I didn't want to give you a chance to later plead 'insanity by reason of exhaustion' when you discovered you had said yes." "Fat chance," she smiled as she kissed him. "Tell me what?" "I have some money coming from the sale of my books. Your folks are welcome to it." "Dan, I have money. The problem has always been their pride." 148

"You have money? I thought you were marrying me for mine" Dan said. "God!" she thought. "It's great to be able to come home and share the day." The next day she found out what was bothering her dad. He hadn't told Sheila, but when he called the new owners of his business, to find out why they hadn't made their payments he was told they did not intend to pay him. They told him further, that if he sued them, they would simply declare bankruptcy. "They've had that business now for over a year. They weren't making any payments to us. What have they done with all the income?" "What volume were you doing when you sold it, dad?" "We were grossing between $200,000 and $60O,000 per month. It was seasonal and fluctuated a lot." "I wonder if they are paying their other creditors?" Jessie said. "Jack Shurley told me that they haven't'paid him for six months. I sold them that place with the best of credit behind it. What if they've ruined it?" "Easy dad. There are certain legal steps that can

149 be taken at this point. What has your lawyer done?" "That's just it," he said dejectedly, "when I went to him and explained the situation, he asked me how I would pay his bill if the buyers fought me in court. He said it was possible for this kind of legal battle to stretch out for years, and his firm never accepted cases on a contingency basis. He offered to write the buyers a letter on my behalf, but that was the most he could do. Imagine, after using his firm's services for 15 years. "Despicable," Jessie snapped. "But I've seen that before. Don't worry dad. You paid for my legal education and now you get the benefits. I do work on a contingency basis and what's more I have this loan service to tide you over till we get your money. How much do you need?" "I couldn't." Mel said.

"Dad, you must. How are you and mom going to survive? This may take a little time. Don't worry, I'll get it all back when you get your money." Jessie took all of the documents concerning the sale that her dad had. She could get a demand letter, for the past due payments, off imediately, and then study the contracts. 'What would a couple in this situation do if they didn't have access to a free 150

lawyer?" she thought. The logical conclusion was frightening. The crooks could take the business, do with it whatever they pleased and the previous owners would be helpless. She could remember Sarchet's words, "Justice is available to everyone, but it is very expensive. Now she was aware that it was so expensive that it was out of the question for many. She wondered how many everyday folks have had their life ruined and their property taken over by perported buyers who have no intention of paying for what they take. They simply inform the seller that they will not pay for the property they have taken possession of, and then hire an unscrupulous lawyer to stretch out the subsequent legal proceedings while they sell off what they have bought. It's a fool-proof format for the buyer and the lawyer. The worst that can happen is that the defrauded person can have the wherewithal to pursue the case through the years of delay, and then get back what's left of his property. But even then, the lawyer takes his part of the booty in legal fees and the crooked buyer lives up the rest of the assets while the unfortunate seller pays his attorney's fees as well as the devaluation of his precious assets. "I can't believe," she thought, "that the people would have dreamed up a system like this where they are 151 the consistent losers. It's obvious to me that the lawyers who have benefitted supremely, passed the laws as legislators and interpreted those laws as judges, so that this system gradually evolved. The crooked buyers could not have created the system, they are simply the beneficiaries. The honest lawyers looked the other way while the lawyers in political positions passed the laws, the judges interpreted those laws so that the really crooked lawyers could create the delays for the thieves who are stealing peoples businesses, homes,

cars, and other property. If a non-lawyer were to help a crooked person steal someone's property, he would be arrested for aiding and abetting a crime. Talk about a license to steal."

Dan was waiting when she reached home. He was very patient while the troubles dogging her parents poured out of her. Her thoughts about the unfairness of it all showed him how deeply she was feeling these developments. "what's so frustrating," she said, "is that those crooks have practically won already." "How do you figure?" Dan asked. "I drove past the warehouse in Santa Ana on the way home. It used to be a beehive of activity when my 152

folks owned the business. Now, there are no trucks, no personnel, and the warehouse appears practically empty." "Could that mean that the business is just slow?" "Everything's possible at this stage. but this entire sale smells fishy. Those buyers knew that my dad had been trying to sell for years, but couldn't because of the lawsuit. They approached him at the end of the trial, guessing that he would need cash for the settlement. They tailored their offer to just what he needed to satisfy the judgment, knowing that he would agree to a long term payoff. I looked at the sales contract and it is filled with legal mumbo jumbo and unenforceable clauses." "Like what?" Dan asked. "At one point, there must be 20 pages devoted to personal guarantees that payments would be made even if they declared bankruptcy." "I know that's not enforceable. Didn't your dad have an attorney help him?" "Oh yes, my dad did everything the right way--always did. His attorney of 15 years worked with the buyers attorneys to draw up the contract." She told Dan about that same attorney's refusal to help her father fight the non-payment because Mel didn't have the resources to fight a long legal battle. "His firm has a 153

rule against contingency fee cases." "That guy sounds like a prince." Dan snorted. "I haven't said anything to my dad about the difficulties in this type of collection. I did get him to accept a small loan to tide them over, but I don't know what they will do if I'm unsuccessful in the collection. It's the only income they have." "Couldn't your dad reopen his engineering business?" Dan asked. "I'll suggest that mom head him in that direction. I'm afraid that if I say something he will suspect that he's lost everything." "Well as I see it, there's still hope." "Oh yes, tomorrow I'll begin digging a little deeper. As distasteful as it is it s better to let them go on operating for the time being until I can find out where the assets went." Jessie concluded. Jessie marvelled at the pleasure of coming home and sharing the day with someone. However, the depth of her parents problems almost cancelled that pleasure. -

XIV CHAPTER XIV

Dan had bought some tickets to see a play in Dana Point. He bought the tickets from a girl who said she was dedicated to saving the Pilgrim. It seems that the Pilgrim is a replica of a two masted sailing ship that used to carry cargo along the California coast. in the late 19th century. Dan had seen the ship in Dana Point Harbor, and thought the idea of seeing a play on board would be something that Jessie would enjoy. "It s a beautiful old sailing vessel," he told Jessie, "with a poop deck and everything. I saw the ship in a demonstration run down the coast under full sail. It was being chased by the sailing cutter California, a replica of the sailing ships that patrolled the coast in the late 1800's." the Pilgrim's home port is Dana Point and a non profit organization is presenting a play on board to raise funds for the ship's facilities and upkeep. The play is based on the book 'Two Years Before the Mast'. Dana Point was named for Richard Henry Dana, the auther

of the book. He describes in his book how the early Californios would throw the cattle hides from the bluffs high above the harbor, and lighters would take the hides

155 out to the sailing vessels anchored off shore. The play was good, but amateurish. However, the high point of the evening came when Jessie discovered that they also rented the ship for weddings. "I want to be married on this ship, "she said simply, but forcefully. "I want you to choose the honeymoon, because I've selected the wedding." Dan readily agreed to a ship board wedding, but said that there was no way that he would unilaterally choose the honeymoon. She pressed him all the way home to make a choice, but all he would do is to offer suggestions. "Would you like to go to Europe, the south of France, Hawaii, the South Pacific?" She wouldn't say yes to any of his suggestions, and he wouldn't stop suggesting. "All right," she said, "where would you go if I weren't along?" "You not along on our honeymoon? I d go into the bathroom and slash my wrists." "You know what I mean. If you were going someplace for a week and there was nothing else to consider, where would you go?" "I'd go backpacking." "Good, then backpacking it is." "No way. You said where would I go if I had a 156

week all to myself. I don't have a week to myself---I don't even want a week to myself. I want to be someplace with you, a blue sky, clear water, but also someplace with good food, lush accomodations, and plenty of service." "All right, we'll compromise. One week in Hawaii and one week in the Sierras." "I love you," he said.

The wedding was held on the Pilgrim. It was a perfect selection, inexpensive so as to not embarass her parents in their precarious financial position, limited attendance without hurting anyone s feelings, and absolutely beautiful. The ceremony was held on the raised after deck, with the audience sitting in the chairs usually used for the plays. Jessie was gorgeous in her long white gown and large white picture hat framing her radiantly beautiful face. Dan, in white dinner jacket was the picture perfect groom. After the ceremony, all of the boats that had gathered around the Pilgrim set off a harbor ringing salute to the newlyweds with every kind of noise making device imaginable. The caterer had a difficult time ferrying the cake, the food, and the drinks out to the ship on the lone lifeboat that had to be used to bring the guests from the dock to the ship. However, everything came 157 together at the last minute, and as they danced the last dance, Mel said to Sheila, "Best damn wedding I ever attended." Jessie and Dan were all packed for Hawaii. Their plane flew directly from LAX to Hilo, where they caught the local flight to Kona. At Kona, the airport shuttle took them to their hotel. For one entire week, Dan had his lush accomodations, plenty of service, blue sky, clear water, and Jessie. At the end of the week, they returned to LAX, picked up the car and drove to Newport. Without telling anyone that they were back from Hawaii, they loaded the backpack equipment and headed for the Sierras. They drove up highway 395 to Lone Pine, and spent the night in a motel. The next morning, they drove up to Whitney Portal, registered with the U. S. Forest Service, and hit the trail. "We don't have to climb to the top of Mt. Whitney unless you vant to," he explained to Jessie. "This trail connects with the John Muir Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, which leads north to Canada or south to Mexico." "Let's don't do all of them on this first hike," she begged. "No," he laughed, "We're not going to make any 158

decisions until we reach each trail junction. There are literally hundreds of canyons, peaks, lakes, streams, meadows, and valleys up here. We might like the first one we come to and spend the whole week there." They did like the first camp they came to, but they didn't spend the whole week there. They had left Whitney Portal, the end of the road, at 6300 feet. The trail climbed up over Whitney Pass at 13,600 feet. From Trail Crest, they had vistas of peaks above them, lakes below them and much of Sequoia National Park. They descended to a camp by a beautifully clear lake. Even though they had surfed exercises everday to prepare for maintained a very slow pace that frequently to rest and check for take it easy, to be certain that altitude." He said. in Hawaii and did the hike, Dan first day, stopping blisters. "We must we can both handle the

Each day seemed to bring more beauty than the day before,if that were possible. And the nights were spectacular. Sometimes the noise of cascading waters, sometimes infinite stillness, and always the two of them together. When it was time to head back, Jessie made Dan promise to bring her back soon. "That's like making the Cookie Monster promise to keep eating cookies," he laughed.

159

CHAPTER

XV

They returned to Orange County refreshed, exhilarated, and ready for work. It was a good thing too, because Dan's office had a mound of problems that needed his attention and Jessie had decided to open her own office. She had discussed with Dan the possibility of her joining his department of the Legal Aid Society, but had rejected that. They had a strict policy against private practice for any of the staff attorneys. Jessie knew that she had to handle her parent's legal problems and did not want to stretch any department rules. "That's just as well," Dan said, "The department is already frowning on my books and my work with PLEA. I don't need to add nepotism to my list." Dan had known for some time that he would be reaching a parting of the ways with the Legal Aid Society. He had originally joined the agency which is funded by an act of congress, to tide him over until his

books and the non-profit organization PLEA could support him. The very sucessful private practice that he had until his first wife died convinced him that the legal system was fatally flawed. His wife's expensive tastes

160 had kept him from doing anything outside his private practice. but once consideration for her was removed he began writing his self-help law books, formed PLEA, and joined the Legal Aid Society. He had moved up rapidly in the organization, soon becoming director of the Santa Ana division. He knew that they helped the poor cope with the myriad of legal problems they faced, but strongly felt that creating multiple organizations to help people fight the present system was not the answer. The system itself was the problem. Creating new organizations to act as band aids to cover over surface flaws was like making new machines to attach to a gigantic machine that won't work in the first place. Jessie' s return home was not quite as hectic as Dan's. She had either gone to school or worked at B.F.K. and S. all of her career, so she actually had to get used to not rushing out the door each morning. She and Dan'agreed to keep her apartment in Newport. It was not large, but it had the proximity to the beach that they both loved. That was the address she was using for the legal manuevers she had taken on her dad's behalf. Since there was nothing in the mail concerning that problem, she imediately got in touch with her parents. 161 "Mel's out looking for work," her mother said on the phone. "but there hasn't been any payments made while you were gone . I just don't know what we're going to do. Jessie got into her car and drove over to her parent's condo in Laguna Hills. They kissed each other, and Sheila asked how the honeymoon had gone. Jessie gave her mother a brief description of both the Hawaiian part and the Sierra backpacking trip. "Dan is the most fabulous thing that s ever happened to me in my life." She ended. "That's wonderful dear . You deserve happiness, you've worked so hard. Dan is a fine man. We are so proud of the both of you." "When do you expect dad home?" Jessie changed the

subject." "I never know. He's having a real hard time. It's been so many years since he was involved in mechanical engineering. Most of his old customers have either moved or gone out of business. He's so depressed." "We've got to keep encourageing him, mom. He was so good at what he did, and work will be his best therapy." Jessie said. "I know. What are the chances that we will start receiving payments from the business again soon?" 162 Sheila asked. "If the buyers are really crooked and get good legal advice, I'm afraid they can tie us up for a long time. The law is definitely skewed in favor of the crook. Let's you and I assume the worst and plan for that. Then if anything better happens it'll be gravy." "We can't survive without income." Sheila said. "You' re right. Dan and I want to take over your condo mortgage payment each month. Then whatever dad earns, you can use for living expenses."Jessie suggested. "Your dad won't accept that." "Then we will buy the condo from you." "Mel would insist on paying rent which would be the same outgo." Sheila insisted. "That's fine, pay what you can. You must make dad understand. He needs his mind free to regain some clients." At that point Mel came dragging through the door. His expresuion said it all. "No luck," he said to Sheila,"'I'm incompetant, 7 years is too long to be away from it all. I don' t understand the new equipment. that electronic gadgetry---." At that point he caught sight of Jessie. "Hi honey, when did you get back?" She went over and kissed her dad. "We got in over the weekend."

163 "I don t suppose I have to ask you if you had a good time?"

"I'll fill you in with all the details," Sheila smiled. "There s no use you going over all that again Jessie." "I wouldn t mind going over it all again, but I really need to get moving. I have a lot of things to do." They all said goodbye and Jessie left. She really did have a lot to do. On the way back home, she did some shopping to fill all of the empty cupboards. At home, she phoned the number of an attorney in Newport. She had worked with this man several times during her tenure at B.F.K. and S. He had told her that if she ever quit her job, she would be welcome in his office. She didn t want to work for anyone, or even with anyone as a partner, but she thought that he might be agreeable to renting her office space. Not only was Simon Pardee agreeable, he was ecstatic. He gave Jessie an office with a large window looking out onto the yachts moored on Newport Bay. Pardee had a full time receptionist secretary. He said the rent included the use of the office, the furniture, the secretary, and all of the equipment. Jessie couldn't have been more pleased. Pardee was an elderly man and honest as the day is long. His secretary was the same age, and the two bickered constantly. They argued about every minute detail, but Jessie got the feeling that they had great respect for each other. "All she needed now," she thought, "is to hang out my shingle." She accomplished that by phoning the local printer and getting some business cards and letterhead. with the new address and phone number. Since the office was no more than 10 minutes from their apartment, she went home and loaded up her files, books, and other office equipment that she had kept from B.F.Keand S. She found that a new phone book was due out next month and was able to get her name included just before the deadline. She couldn't wait to tell Dan about her good fortune.

Months passed, and Jessie and Dan settled into a routine. They went off to work each morning after their jog on the beach. Dan's job was always pressing. Too much to do and not enough time to do it. But Jessie let her new business develop slowly, and being so close to home, she was always there when he got home. Usually they would eat there and spend the leisurely evenings

165 watching some television or discussing the day. They shared each other's cases and discussed possible solutions. Before bed time, Dan always did some writing and Jessie some reading. They had never been happier in their lives. Not so with Mel and Sheila. The buyers of their business had still not made any payments. Neither had Mel's attempt to procure new clients paid off. He seemed to worry so about the fact that 'those people are operating our business, keeping all the profits, not paying, and getting away with it,' that he could not approach his prospective clients with his same old enthusiasm . Sheila was more pragmatic. "Our strength," she said to him, "lies in the fact that our needs are so simple. Jessie and Dan are buying the condo, and you've found enough clients to pay our living expenses. So don't worry, as you build up your business we will have plenty. We're so lucky that Kevin and Susanne are back on their feet and Jessie and Dan are doing so well." Mel was unable to accept Sheila's reasoning. His life seemed to deteriorate into a vicious circle. The more he unsuccessfully sought clients, the more depressed he became, and the more depressed he became the less likely that he could find new clients. And at

166

the base of the problem was his frustration at being legally robbed. Life had dealt him his hand, he had played it with skill and hard work, and had built all they would ever need. Then, along comes the thieves and with the help of the lawyers and the blessings of the law makers, had stolen his life. Jessie was utilizing all the legal skills she had acquired at school and at B.F.K.and S. to help Mel with his problems. Once she had determined that most of the assets that Mel had transferred to the new owners were either sold off or hidden someplace, there was no advantage in trying to get a court order to shut them down. So her plan had to be to let them operate and hopefully produce assets while she filed suit for non-payment. Their attorney countered with a lawsuit charging that Mel had shorted his clients on inventory and that the inventory was faulty. Now there would be

an extended period of what the court called search. She would send interrogatories to them and they would send interrogatories to Mel and Sheila, then there would be depositions from anyone remotely connected. If they were lucky they would then get a court date, a mandatory settlement hearing, and then their day in court. However, every step in the process was subject to delay. Their attorney could have conflicts with his schedule, 167

his clients could get delays for health and other reasons. At any stage, bankruptcy could be declared and then rescinded to avoid a hearing. It would be an inept shyster indeed who could not force any case of this type into years of delay. Especially in courts with crowded calendars where each wait for a court date could take a year or more. Jessie never felt such frustration. Especially seeing the effect it was having on her father. Many of her evening discussions with Dan began to revolve around her dad s case and the injustice of it all. "How did we get such a system?" she cried. "The system evolved over a period of time." Dan answered. "You probably didn't get much coverage of that part of legal history at school. It's funny that a profession so devoted to 'legal precedent' when it comes to it's dogma is so blind to it s legal history. Ask any lawyer why a law is accepted and he will be able to trace its dogmatic origins to its beginning, but ask him why lawyers are the only ones who can do some legal manuever and he will say "That's the way it's always been done." Dan stopped suddenly. "I must be boring you to death." "No please go on." She begged. 168 Dan continued. "Through the early stages of this country, the practice of law was not much in evidence. The uncomplicated structure of society, the abundance of land, and the integrity of the population contributed to few legal encounters. To become a lawyer, one needed only to serve a short apprenticeship with a practicing attorney, read a few books, and hang out his shingle." "The biggest problem he had was finding someone to pay him for his services. People who committed a crime were tried immediately and punished forthwith--not much

business there. Corporate law was nonexistant because there were no corporations Almost all buying and selling was done on a hand shake basis with the integrity of the parties being all that was necessary. The handshake was the contract." "Even the lawmakers were not lawyers. Thomas Jefferson and other signatories of the Declaration of Independence considered themselves farmers who knew the law. Not the other way around." "It wasn't that the people didn't respect the law nor need it. On the contrary, they revered the law. Our country was composed of people doing their best to write and live under a constitution of laws that would protect them from those who history had proved always arrive in every society to subvert the law, control the

169

peop1e, and make themselves rich." "Those early lawmakers tried to save themselves and us from takeover by religious zealots, dictators, Czars, Kings and Emperors,by separating church and state, president, congress and judiciary. Their separation of powers has worked so far and their love of law protected us." "What I'm trying to say is the people took care of their own legal problems. There was not a single book published in the American Colonies prior to 1888 intended for the use of professional lawyers. All the legal treatises of this period were intended for the use of the people. They did their own legal work. There was actually a strong feeling that any person who could not stand up and defend his own interests in court was probably not honest. "I didn't know that," Jessie said. "You re right, none of my law school classes covered that aspect of legal history. Tell me more." "You sure I'm not boring you?" "No, really, I'm fascinated." "Well, gradually, as the society became more complicated, the people turned to the lawyers more and more. You see, it wasn't all the lawyers fault. I mean, the people became more litigous, less self 170

reliant. At first the lawyers were simply providing a service the people wanted. However, in a free enterprise system, more business always attracts more people. More business demand also generates higher prices. A sellers market so to speak. The doctors have always done the best job of any of the professions in controlling their numbers so that they stay in control of their market" "As the increase in litigation upped the demand for lawyers their numbers and their prices rose. Now, with other professions like plumbers, teachers, accountants, etc. too many practitioners always creates competition and the payment they get for their services falls. The teachers are the best example of this. Periodically, they go through cycles of too many teachers for the available jobs and then too few for the market demand. If they were smarter, and less dedicated, they would regulate their numbers as the doctors do. Anyway, I have no doubt that the salaries they command at any given time directly corresponds to the jobs available and the number of teachers to fill those jobs." Jessie offered, "I'm sure that principle applies to truck drivers. When Kevin started his career with his truck, he made a lot of money. Then when the 171 shippers started using piggyback shipping by train there were suddenly too many drivers for the available jobs. Kevin said that trucking has never recovered from that." "Exactly," Dan agreed. "But have you ever noticed that in the past century the lawyers have not been governed by the supply and demand principle? Their numbers have balooned tenfold while the general population was doubling. And yet their salaries have increased immeasurably more than normal expectation." "But wouldn t that be the public s inclination toward litigation?" Jessie interjected. "The public must accept a share of the blame. The breakdown in integrity, responsibility, and self reliance has been appalling. However, there has been an overpowering force pushing this society toward unnecessary litigation. Have you ever heard the story about the two lawyers and the small town?" "Tell me ." Jessie said. "It seems a lawyer moved to a small average mid-western town and set up his practice. The people. were honest, law abiding, self reliant types and for

years the lawyer almost starved to death. Then one day a second lawyer moved into town and soon they were both making a lot of money." Jessie stared at Dan for a moment and then burst 172

out laughing. "That takes a while to sink in." "It's funny because everyone knows that there's a lot of truth in the story. Lawyers can and do create adversarial relationships. They are taught in law school that it is the best way to get at the truth. In some cases, that may be so. I wouldn't do away with that principle entirely, but the lawyers concentration on adversarial relationships has all but eliminated negotiation from much of the legal process." Jessie remembered Sarchet. "In my first case for B.F.K. and S.,I was severely reprimanded for negotiating a settlement." "It's no coincidence lawyers take that position. Quick negotiated settlements are much less lucrative, for the lawyer, than prolonged antagonistic legal battles. The beauty of this country is the diversity of its population and interests. When these selfish interests overlap and come in contact, the absolutely best solution is for each to give a little---compromise. The second best thing is fighting the problem out in front of a jury or other third party." " The problem in is compounded by the fact that lawyer to head off compromise. selfish interests that overlap 173 all of this it is so easy for a When two parties have it's usually an emotional

thing like a divorce or something. Anyone attempting to lead them into compromise usually incurs the wrath of both parties. It s a job that needs special training." "1 know, at B.F.K.and S., our standard explanation to a client was that any mandatory settlement conferences were strictly routine. They didn't mean anything. Usually by the time they are scheduled, just before trial, the procedure is worthless." Dan smiled. "And where does that procedure come from? From the lawyers, and the lawyers who are judges

recommend to the lawyers who are congressmen that the courts need certain rules. Is it any wonder that the system works great for the lawyers and not at all for the people." "What can the people do? What can we do?" she asked hopelessly. Is that the reason you gave up your practice and went to work at the Legal Aid Society---to help poor people?" "Not exactly. The poor people don't run into the mess in the legal system as often as the middle class and the rich people. They do need help, and our department helps a lot of them. Witness the fact that the welfare haters, and those wanting to stop any help for the poor, as well as the landlord lobby, and others are constantly badgering congress to cut our budget.

174 No, the poor are helped a lot, and the rich can afford expensive lawyers to fight their battles. Its the average guy, the one whose taxes support this government, the one who made this country great, the majority of the population, they are the ones who need and deserve a better system." "Like my folks," she said sadly. "Exactly." "What can we do? Is that what PLEA is for? I want to help." "Since I formed PLEA, I've run across thousands of people who want to help. And they are helping. We are trying to educate the public. That's probably the most necessary but the most difficult part of any reform movement. We are training para-legal personnel to help people handle certain legal problems for themselves. We try to lobby people in and out of government in the direction of reform. And, of course, I and others are attempting to write and publish law books to guide people in handling their own problems without hiring lawyers. But I'm afraid all this effort is minuscule compared to the magnitude of the task. We need money, but more than anything, what we need is a new idea, a new direction, something that will catch fire, catch the public's attention."

175 "Have you tried enlisting the aid of the lawyer s

own professional organizations. The Bar Association, the Courtroom Attorney s Association, they recognize there's trouble brewing." "They won't anuwer our letters. In fact, the day you and I met and I couldn't call you the next day because I had to go to Florida. I went there to help defend a para-legal who had been helping people fill out their own divorce papers. She was dragged into court by a professional legal organization charging her with practicing law without a license." "Was she convicted?" Jessie asked. "No, she compromised. She promised to stop her para-legal business if they stopped prosecuting her." "What about working through governmental agencies, the president's office, the governor's office, all the state legislatures?" "That's where a lot of money is needed. People have to live, so they hare to be paid. They can't just spend their time in Sacramento or Washington without help." "Well I can," she said defiantly. "I know Simon Pardee at my office also feels strongly about legal reform. He growls about "what's happened to the damned profession' often enough. I'll bet he would be

176 happy to cover for me if I go to Sacramento. He might even go with me. I've lived and worked my whole life in this state. I'm sure I can do something." "That's great honey. I've wished to have you join me on this crusade ever since We ve been married, but I didn't want you to join just because you're my wife. I would be pleased if you would go to Sacramento. I'll give you all the addresses and phone numbers of the people we need to contact. One word of caution, though. I've seen several start into this mess with almost religious zeal and then get burned out quickly because results are so scarce. Promise me you won t get disappointed if you don t have any luck." "I promise." The next day, Jessie went into Simon pardee s office and explained her plan to him. "You"re god damn right I'll cover for you," he said. She had never seen him so vociferous. "Get those god damned lawyers up there off their asses and get some

god damned laws passed that'll help eliminate all these god damned delays." The old secretary, Lila, poked her head in the door. "You stop all that swearing Simon Pardee or I'm 177

coming in there and stuff my typewriter ribbon in your mouth." "Oh shut up woman and go back to work," he hollered. She looked at Jessie, shook her head and said, "He ain't got no manners." "No wonder we've been losing clients if that's the kind of grammar you use." Pardee said. "There's only been one client drop this firm in all the years I've worked here and she told me that she was moving to Santa Rosa. She probably moved to get away from you---you old bear." Lila said. "That was the young woman who had the car accident, wasn't it. Hell, she looked just like all the women I see every time I look in my rear view mirror. They're always five feet from my bumper, trying to pass and putting on lipstick at the same time."Pardee blurted. "You probably wouldn't have so many on your bumper if you would get that old heap of yours past 25 miles per hour." Lila retorted. Pardee ranted on as if Lila hadn't said anything. "Years ago it was the young teenage boys terrorising everyone's back bumper, now it's young women. Always in a hurry, rush-rush-rush." As Lila left the office she said to Jessie,

178 "you'll probably have to write the old fool a letter---he can't concentrate on more than one thing at a time. I think he's getting senile." When Lila was gone, Jessie finished discussing her plan with Pardee. She promised to phone him every day,and then went back to her office. She tried to anticipate any legal moves that might be coming up in any of her cases, arranged all the necessary documents on her desk, and then called Lila in to explain whatever might need

to be done while she was gone. "After all these years, I can probably do these things as well as you can. I know I can do beter than old fowl mouth," Lila said. Jessie laughed, "I'll bet you could run both practices without us." That night, she called her folks. Her mother answered the phone and Jessie explained about her trip to Sacramento. She assured Sheila that there was nothing iminent in their lawsuit and that she would be in touch with her office daily. When she asked about her dad, she was shocked by her mother's reply. "He's not well. He just sits around the house and mopes. He doesn't even go out to interview for jobs anymore. I don't know how to help him." "As soon as I get back I'm coming over to spend 179 the whole day." Jessie promised. 180 XVI CHAPTER XVI

Jessie took the eight o clock flight out of John Wayne Airport. Dan took her to the airport on his way to work. In Sacramento. She took a cab to her hotel. The hotel she had chosen was located right in the heart of all of the state governmental buildings. Many of the lobbyist s addresses that Dan had supplied her with were within walking distance also. She was settled into her hotel room by 11:00 A.M, and immediately called the state bar association offices. She asked to speak to George Rank, because Pardee had told her that Rank was the only lawyer in Sacramento that understood the situation. Jessie thought that that would be a good place to start. She hoped that she might be able to get an appointment to see him that afternoon. Pardee had assured her that this man knew his way around the governmental beaurocracy. He vas with a client, but when his secretary asked if she should make an appointment with someone Simon Pardee had sent, he said, "Hell yes, send her right up."

181

Jessie walked the six blocks down to the Association offices and took the elevator to the sixth floor. His secretary showed her into his office. He was the same age as Pardee and displayed the same beligerent twinkle in his eyes. "My God," he exclaimed as Jessie offered her hand. "Simon Pardee sending me a beautiful blonde. What a guy." He shook her hand, and offered her a seat. " I understand that you are an attorney." "Yes," she said, "Simon and I share offices down in Newport Beach." "You don't realize how much that tells me," he laughed. "That old fart wouldn't share offices with Saint Peter himself---not pure enough, if you get my meaning. You must be the most capable, honest, lawyer in Southern California." "I don't know about that, but Simon told me to see you so you're my first contact in Sacramento." "Well then, enough preliminaries what can I do for you?" He replied. Jessie explained that she was representing PLEA, that it was an organisation dedicated to legal reform---preferably within the system. "I'm here to talk with anyone who might be able to help us reach our 182

goal. In addition, we offer our services to help anyone working toward like goals." "I've heard of PLEA," he said, "started by a guy writing self help law books, right?"

"That's my husband, Dan Jordan." "Oh!---Well, I can tell you that his approach is not going to endear him or his organization to any of the lawyer's professional associations." "Why is that?" She asked. "Don't get me wrong Mrs. Jordan, I am personally in favor of your goals." He looked over his shoulder in an exagerated fashion. "Don't let any of my colleagues hear me say that. However, Pardee was right when he told you that I know my way around Sacramento. Believe me, There's no way in hell that you're going to get help from any lawyer groups. Do you want my advice?" "That's what I came here for." "You can't work within the system and accomplish any meaningful law reform. Oh, you might be able to get Small Claims Court maximums raised to $5000. However, that's been passed by the Assembly a couple of times and the trial lawyers who dominate the Senate Judiciary Committee won't even let the bill reach the floor of the Senate. At any rate, if you could do them some kind favor---like laying off any further reform- -they

183 might let you raise the limit to $5000. But that's all the reform they are going to allow. I hope I'm making myself clear. There will never be any legal reform put through any legislature in this country without the approval of the lawyer's associations. They control better than two thirds of all the members of all of the legislative bodies." What about the executive branches---or the judiciary?" She asked. The old lawyer laughed. "The lawyers and the judiciary are interchangeable, but I can tell you that many in the executive branch fear the power the lawyers have over the government. They fear it and they respect it. The only way anyone in government can operate is to cooperate with the lawyers and give them what they want. Face it Mrs. Jordan, if you could make a deal to up the Small Claims Court limit that wouldn't be bad." "You said that we couldn't accomplish any more than that working within the system---did you mean to imply that we might be able to work outside the system?" "Not exactly outside the system, but outside the three branches of government. Your only hope, to not only curb the abuses by the lawyers, but to prevent

their further consolidation of power, is to work through the people. I don't think it can be done, mind you, but

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I do know that you have no chance any other way." "You make things sound ominous." Jessie said. "Things could be. Look at the power of the Nixon administration. Given a few changes in the events that took place and we might have had a self proclaimed president for life. What if the power of the lawyers is not curbed and the next time a bunch of them begin twisting the law their own way and gathering and laundering unlimited amounts of money,and there happens to be a power hungry maniac who persuades the rest of them that to save themselves and the country they have to take over. What then? I happen to be a lawyer and working for one of the largest lawyer organizations, but as an American first,I believe in separation of powers and restrictions on any group's power---even my own group." "How would you work through the people?" Jessie asked. "Well, like I said, I don t think you or anyone else can pull it off. The public reminds me of penguins. When penguins go fishing, they all crowd toward a hole in the ice until one of them falls in. If he isn't eaten by a seal or a killer whale, they all go fishing. The public reads about thousands of their members being eaten by the system, but they each feel that it will never happen to him.

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"If you're still going to try---and I can see that you are. First you're going to have to find a workable alternative to our present system. Then you would need to articulate it to the people so that they understood it. then you would have to get them excited about it, and finally you would have to convince them of the danger of the present system." "Any thoughts about how all of that could be done?" She asked. "Yeh! First you need money. Next you need more money. And finally you need lots more money. Nothing moves in politics without plenty of money. Maybe you would like to go back to the Small Claims Court limit. Assemblyman Gaudry is fighting an uphill battle. He could use all the help you could give him." "Yes, I would like to see Assemblyman Gaudry, but PLEA has been working on reform for several years now and I guarantee you we are not backing off because the battle is going to be long or tough." "Good for you. Let me call Gaudry's office and get you an appointment. I already told you that I couldn't get you the time of day from any of the lawyer groups, but if I could help you with any other offices. How about the Governor's office?" "That would be great."

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"I can't get you in to see the Governor, but I can probably find a non-lawyer on his staff who would talk with you. If I can be of any further help, don't hesitate to call on me anytime. Only please keep who you are and who you work for kinda quiet around this organization." Jessie had a meeting with Assemblyman Gaudry that same afternoon. His problem with Assembly Bill 2638, raising the Small Claims Court limit to $5000 was for all practical purposes insurmountable. Last year, a similar bill passed the Assembly by a wide margin. "However," he said, "that's misleading. Every member of the Assembly knows that the bill will be killed by the Senate Judiciary committee. So if he

wants to make points with his constituency back home, pretending to help the little people, he simply casts a meaningless vote for the limit." He explained. Jessie did learn a lot about Small Claims Court. In her lega1 career, naturally, she had never come in contact with it. Lawyers were not allowed to practice in that court. Gaudry explained that the Court at first had the support those damn piddly little cases they could concentrate on more idea of Small Claims of most lawyers. "It got out of their offices so lucrative ones.

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He explained how they even let the limit go to $500, then $1000, and now $1500. "But some of them are getting worried now," he said. "The system is working too well. They're afraid the people are going to start comparing it with the mess the lawyers have made out of the other courts." "How does Small Claims do a better job?" Jessie asked. "In court cases there are going to be winners and losers, and no jury or no judge is going to be 100% right, no matter how much time is taken. The small Claims judge is probably no more accurate than the other judges, but the interesting thing is he is no less accurate either. The big winners in the system are people. It only costs them $14, and in 90 days or less the whole problem is adjudicated. The only possible losers are the lawyers who can't send out big bills for their services." "I helpful lawyers help?" can see your frustration at having something so to your constituents, being knocked down by on the Senate Judiciary Committee. How can I Jessie wanted to know.

"The biggest part of the problem is educating the public. Your organization is the Public Legal Education Association, so I assume you can help there. I'll provide you with all the literature we have and keep you 188

up to date on new developments. As I said, a lot of the lawyers are getting nervous. I understand they are even contemplating legislation to admit lawyers into Small Claims Courts. That would be the first step to 'requiring' lawyers in all small claims cases. That's exactly how they took all the courts away from the people in the first place I hate to suggest an exercise in futility, but if you would, I'd appreciate your contacting the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and putting your weight behind my bill." "Of course I will," Jessie assured him. The next morning George Rank had arranged a meeting for her with the gubernatorial assistant. He spent the entire meeting agreeing with her objectives and oozing sympathy. But in the end, he copped out. "There's nothing we in the executive branch can do. It's a legislative problem." He said. Gaudry had arranged a meeting in the afternoon with a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She sat in his waiting room for over an hour, then got a five minute lecture on ungrateful lawyers trying to destroy their own profession. The meeting was truly an exercise in futility . Jessie returned to her hotel room exhausted. "I don't think I ever got this tired on any case I ever

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had," she thought. She took a shower and then called her office in Newport. Lila answered. "Everything is fine here, but you have a message to call Dan imediately." "Thanks Lila." She dialed Dan's office. He answered. "Honey, brace yourself. Your dad's had a stroke. They took him to County Community Hospital. Your mother's with him. You will have a reservation at the Air Cal ticket counter. I'll meet you at the airport."

They got to the hospital and met Sheila in the waiting area. They hugged and Sheila said. "I've just left him. The doctor said that he appears to have stabilized for the moment. He said that you could see him briefly, then he wants dad to rest. He could have another stroke at any time." Jessie went into her dad's room. She was surprised. His eyes were bright and he recognised her. She kissed him and he grasped her hand tightly. "I can only stay a moment. The doctor wants you to rest. He wants you to get well as soon as possible." She told him. His speech was slurred and tears were in his eyes. "Jessie, don't go. listen." "Please dad, rest now." "No." His grip on her hand tightened. 190

"Young---people---like you are our only hope. you re precious and rare Jessie---you've got to---help this country---survive" He mumbled. "Dad, let s talk when rou re better." "No, now. Our institutions are fragile." He semed to gain a little strength. "Freedom is fragile---young people like you must save them---promise me Jessie." "I promise, dad. Now please rest." He ignored her. "We talked about socialized law, but you and Dan are so capable---I know you can make it work without that drastic step." He was rambling now. She kissed him and said, "Go to sleep." "I always treated the union fairly. Do you know that the big steel companies used to bring in workers from different European countries that didn't like each other just so they wouldn t organize. They used strike breakers to beat the workers who tried to organize. "Sleep dad." "Our farmers shared their growing secrets with the poorer countries and now the farmers in those countries are destroying our family farms with their cheap products. And the same type business man who hired the

strike breakers is importing cheap foreign manaufactured 191

goods to break our unions. Tell the people Jessie----if they send all our jobs over seas and break the unions we ll have to go through all the bloodshed again." "I'll tell them dad. Now sleep. He seemed quietly slipped seeming urgency she had set his to relax. She extricated her hand and out of the room. She didn't llke the and finality of his message, but hoped mind at ease so he could rest.

She went back to the waiting room where her mother, Dan, Kevin and Suzanne waited. They all embraced again. Sheila seemed remarkably composed. "They wouldn't admit him at Modjeska General," she said angrily. "He just collapsed at home and I called the ambulance to take him to Modjeska. They kept him in emergency while they checked our insurance. I was told that if I couldn't pay right now I'd have to take him here. He's not covered for cardiac related problems." "Didn't the insurance man get that straightened out yet?" Jessie asked incredulously. "He's still working on it." Sheila said. "Don't worry about that now, mom. Do you want to take dad to another hospital?" "No, not now. Let him rest. The trip took two hours." Mel was not conscious the next morning. The 192

doctor said that all they could do now was wait. Jessie phoned the insurance agent to find out the status of her dad's policy. "Oh! I m sure I didn't tell your folks that the company would definitely waive their restrictions in one year," he said. "I have a letter in their file from the insurance company. It says the company may remove the restrictions after one year." "Was a copy of that letter sent to my folks?" Jessie asked. "I'm certain that it was."

"What is the date on that letter?" "Umm---exactly two weeks after the effective date on the policy." Jessie said "Please send me a copy of that letter." "I will Jessie. Anything else?" "Yes, I want the name of the officer in that insurance company who is in charge of customer relations." "Sure thing. I ll send it with the copy of the letter. I hope your father gets well soon." Mel did not regain consciousness for the next three days. Then passed away quietly in the night. Years before, while they had been sitting on a rock watching grey whales offshore, he had told Sheila, "when I die please spred my ashes out there." They had the 193

body cremated and the ashes spread on the Pacific Ocean. Sheila was devastated, but wished to stay on in the condo. Fortunately, at Mel's insistance the condo had been legally transferred to Jessie and Dan when they had started making the payments. Technically, Sheila was destitute and Mel's hospital bill to the county did not have to be paid. However, when Jessie became convinced that there was no way to collect from the insurance company she and Dan arranged to pay the hospital at $500 per month until the bill was discharged. Sheila was adamant. "I'm going to get a job and pay rent. I'm also going to pay the county for Mel s care. Jessie hadn't told her mom that they were taking care of the bill. "Fine mom, as soon as you're able, we'll find you a job and you can pay rent." "Don't patronize me, young lady. I'm perfectly able to get a job myself, and right away." Jessie and Dan had just spent the first evening

together, in a long time, talking on the floor in front of a blazing fire. She had told him of the frustrating experiences that had befallen her in Sacramento before

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she had to come home. And then finished with her mother's recalcitrant edict. Dan had the perfect solution. "I had gone through the same frustrating experiences of trying to work within the present system several years ago," he said, but I took the chance that you might get too frustrated, and quit, and let you go through the same thing." Jessie said, "Why?" "Things sometimes change. You're a very talented lady. I hoped you might succeed where I had failed. I wanted you to be ready for the next step if we had to take it." "What is it? I'm ready." She said eagerly. "PLEA must become a viable educational organization. We must open an office, begin soliciting donations, and start a publicity campaign. That's where your mother comes in, She's also a very talented lady. We can't let her get away to some other job. She's perfect to head the office of PLEA. "Oh Dan, what a great idea. But where do we get the money?" "Over the past several years," he continued, "many people who believe in this cause have offered to donate. I told them that when I was ready I would take their

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money. That is why I formed PLEA into a non-profit corporation. Now, I'm ready. I must quit my job because there will be so much to do. If you think that Sheila and I can work together, and that I can persuade her to work for me, I'll start with her." "You'll have to convince her it's a real job and not charity." Jessie admonished. "If your mother's as smart as I think she is she'll know. If not at first, then as soon as she sees how much work we have to do." Dan laughed. Dan gave notice at the Legal Aid Society the next day.

196

BOOK II

CHAPTER XVII Dan and Jessie arranged to take Sheila out to dinner. He walked on eggs throughout his entire presentation to Sheila explaining his new plans for PLEA. Sheila confounded him by accepting his offer to run the office without so much as a blink. She was more enthusiastic than Dan. "Mel would be so happy," she said. "He wanted to do something to help the people." Dan felt that Jessie should retain her private practice. "I think that you can be more help staying in contact with the legal world. Simon Pardee's contacts alone make it worthwhile for you to stay there. Besides you can'bring in enough money for us to live on in case donations fizzle." Donations didn t fizzle. Not one of Dan's previous contacts backed away from his offer. They rented a store in Newport, got some office equipment, and Sheila organized an efficient operation. They put a

sign P.L.E.A., out front and had telephones installed. 197

The store was only two blocks from Jessie s. office, and the first day she spent more time at PLEA than she did in her office. At night, she and Dan spent hours discussing the day s progress and planning future strategy. "It s not enough to oppose the present system," Dan said It s essential that we develop a comprehensive approach to the overall problem. That entails efforts in several directions. We must develop positive alternatives to the harmful practices that are now in use, we must select and revise those practices that can be made to work, and emphasize the practices that already work." "Assemblyman Gaudry, in Sacramento, feels that the Small Claims Court has proven itself to be a very workable problem solver," Jessie offered. "His present bill before the Assembly would raise the dollar limit to $5000, but he told me that would just be the beginning. Small Claims Court is beyond the experimental stage. He claims that it has worked so well that we should allow it to expand to $10,000 and maybe even $20,000 limits. Furthermore, he feels that the same format could be utilized for childless divorces and other problems requiring solutions other than money." "I know." Dan responded, "Many people feel the success of that court has earned it the right to 198

expansion. We need a task force to study how we can help Gaudry break through his road block. We also need a task force to spearhead a campaign to define and legalize paralegals. We need to find out where self help textbooks can be utilized. What we need about now is a coordinator to organize volunteers. I know of many talented individuals who are willing to work on these problems if they know where to work and how." "Suppose we advertised in the newspaper. Do we have enough money to run some ads?" "I think so. I'11 have Sheila get some prices." The next day, Sheila put a whole list of advertising prices on Dan's desk. "It would cost a fortune just to put a few small ads in several of the local papers," she said. "Why don't we pool all that money and take out one big ad in the L.A. Times? We

could ask for contributions, volunteers, and how about asking the average guy on the street to send us his own personal horror story about what the law has done to him? Like what happened to Mel and me." "Great idea," Dan agreed, "I'll think about it." Actually, he couldn't stop thinking about Sheila's idea. He could hardly wait to get home to discuss it with Jessie. After dinner they took a walk along the beach and he casually mentioned Sheila's suggestion. He 199

didn't want his enthusiasm to influence Jessie because of the respect he had for her judgment. At first she reacted rather cooly. "George Rank said up in Sacramento, that the most important thing our group had to accomplish was catching the peoples attention. This might just do it." Then she began to warm to the idea. "Sure, everyone's heard the big guy's horror stories with the court's decisions. Newport Beach, right here in our town, was charged $6 million because some kid dove into a sand bar. Laguna Beach was nailed for $2 1/2 million because a passenger in a car driven by someone who had been drinking couldn't negotiate a jog in the street and hit a parked car. Everyone's heard about the burglar who fell through a skylight while burglarizing a school and the school had to pay him millions. But what about all those little guys like my dad. They didn't lose millions and make the newspapers, they just lost their whole lives. Let's find out how many of them are out there." "I didn't like Sheila's idea at first," he said. "But, you know, over the years I've made a lot of good friends across the country. People in professional organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Medical Association, small business organizations, retail groups. People who feel 200 that the lawyers have added hugely and unneccessarily to their cost of doing business. If the public only knew how much they actually pay for lawyers on every item they buy, from chewing gum to houses, they would rebel. Well, maybe now is the time. I've been fighting this battle conservatively for years waiting for the right move. I'm willing to risk it all on a sink or swim basis. I think Sheila's given me the key." "Let's go for it. Jessie said.

"I'll contact all of the chapters of PLEA in the other cities and the other states. I'll let them know our plan. Then I'll try to call in every i.o.u. and pledge anyone has ever made to me. What should we put in the ad?" Dan asked. "Mom s idea of asking everyone, especially the average people, for their own experiences with the legal system is the key. We should just incidentally ask for donations to support PLEA." "That's good. We should stress the need for volunteers, though." "Yes and services, facilities, equipment---we might as well give it our best shot." Jessie said. And they did give it their best. Dan spent a whole day composing a half page ad. At the suggestion of the newspaper's ad lady, he showed the ad to the

201 advertising manager, and for the same price they ran the ad in all the separate Sunday editions. It was printed in the Orange County edition, the San Fernando Valley edition, the Metropolitan edition as well as the editions that went all over the state and to out of state cities. On Sunday morning, while Jessie and Dan were eating breakfast, they both decided they couldn't wait till Monday and went over to PLEA's office. They were surprised to find Sheila there answering the phone. They had three lines in, and Sheila was on one writing furiously, while the other two were blinking. "Get a pencil, and a phone," she screamed. Jessie and Dan did just that. Most of the callers wanted to tell them their story, but each agreed to write a summary of the facts and mail it to PLEA. They usually added "I'm sending money too." Monday morning, their phones were overwhelmed. Fortunately, some local volunteers had been waiting at the front door when they opened. Sheila imediately put three of them answering the calls and taking down the pledges. Dan had gone to the local real estate office to try to rent the large vacant store next to theirs, while Jessie went to the phone company to arrange for more phones.

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Sheila decided to keep the office open Monday evening. They were still averaging one call a minute on each line, with the biggest problem being how to turn the caller off without being rude. Over 75% of them were pledging anything from $1.00 to $100, with the rest requesting more information. Several of those indicated that they were prepared to make large donations if they could be sure of PLEA s positions on certain issues. The telephone barrage continued Tuesday morning and that afternoon, a mail truck arrived with two bags of mail On Wednesday it was three full bags of letters. Two thirds of the letters had either cash or checks made out to PLEA. Sheila's organizational skills were superb. She molded the volunteers into a veritable army. She put an old retired banker in charge of extracting the money from the envelopes. He had sufficient help to record the data end separate the letters into categories. Then he would take charge of the money, getting it to the bank each day. For the time being, the letters piled up in boxes in each of their categories. The largest category was the personal anecdotes, the next largest was the requests for more information,and the smallest was the congratulatory messages. By the second week, Dan had them in the much 203 larger building next door with additional phone lines. They decided not to run the ad again until they were more organized. He wanted every letter anuwered and explanatory literature that he was having printed, mailed. One manufacturer, who said he had been hit by a rediculous product liability suit, offered to send over an entire IBM system 30 with software. Sheila found a housewife volunteer who was proficient with that system and Dan soon had her computerizing all their records. Each night they were exhausted, but too excited to talk about anything else. Dan said, "Your mother is marvelous. I provide her with the facilities and she instantly organizes her army of volunteers to utilize them to the fullest. I think that we are organized enough to run the ad some more. But we need to take some time to set our direction more specifically." "What do you mean?" Jessie asked. "The response has been so overwhelmingly positive that I need to revise all of my time schedule. We knew, being lawyers, about the corruption, abuses, and ineffectiveness of the legal system. What I wasn't prepared for was the public's apparent awareness of the

same problems. I had felt that we would possibly spend years articulating the problem to the public before they 204

could be readied for involvement. In the meantime, I had been content to work on that educational process and at the same time exert what effort I could to effect changes within the system. And, of course, money was always a limiting factor." "It certainly looks like that might be solved." Jessie said. "Exactly. This could just be a flash in the pan, but I don't think so. In any event, let's operate on the assumption that we have struck a nerve with the public and it's going to continue." "That means, that this organization is going to be infiltrated by the unscrupulous element that's always attracted by money." Dan said. "what do we do about that?" "I plan to employ the Blatt, Jackson nationwide accounting firm imediately. We are computerizing all our records from the beginning and I want every branch office to do the same. Internal security and a tight reign on the funds must be kept. I've seen too many organizations corrupted from within. I'm going to need a lot of help, and I'm going to have to delegate authority. There will have to be someone overseeing PLEA chapters in all of the states. Each chapter should have as much autonomy as possible, because the response 205

we've seen here may not be universal throughout the country. Besides, each state has special legal problems and it's own laws. Therefore, local measures, procedures, and goals may differ. However, there must be nationwide scrutiny of all phases of PLEA to prevent any corruption anyplace. Likewise, there must be strong leadership developing nationwide policy." "That should be you," Jessie said admiringly. "Yes, that's the job I have in mind for myself because I have a brain trust right in my own house," he laughed. "Let's put it to work. In light of our overwhelming response, and assuming it will continue, what do you recommend for our goals?"

"Well," she said, "we know certain things for sure. Unfair laws favoring lawyer's interests at the expense of the people's interests have been passed by every legislature in the country. Unscrupulous lawyers are utilizing these laws to promote their own, and their crooked client's interests. Even the honest judges and lawyers are so wrapped up in their game that they ignore the people they are supposed to be helping. It's next to impossible to effect any changes in the system because the lawyers control all branches of government, and their professional organizations are only interested in protecting the system as is. 'Due process of law'

206 means you pay your lawyer and you are allowed to play the game---drop your lawyer and you lose." "You forgot, the people are fed up," Dan added. "Right! In the light of all that, and looking at where our organization stands, we must make a compilation of the statistics contained in all those anecdotes. If those true stories could point out the portions of the system that are doing the most damage to people, we could take that information to congressional hearings and insist on change. We could also insist that the professional lawyer groups discipline their members who are abusing the public." "In spite of my years of failure trying to work within the system and your rebuffs in Sacramento, you still want to go to the lawyer's guilds and the legislatures? I love your tenacity." Dan said as he kissed her. Jessie was adamant, "I think that if this public outcry is as pronounced as it appears and if we can do a good job of organizing and presenting it to the legal profession, they will respond." "You mean the same law makers who held public hearings airing all sorts of abuses auto mechanics were perpetrating on the public while the members of their own profession were doing far worse, would respond7"

207 "Well, those law makers set up a commission that the public can complain to about auto mechanics. Mechanics can lose their licenses if they are caught cheating. They would be hypocrites to do less for their own

profession." "Maybe you' re right," Dan said skeptically, "the people who tend to go into the legal profession are not the dedicated, self sacrificing types that might go into teaching. Lawyers are usually intelligent, hard working, logical individuals. Perhaps, it takes them longer as a group to understand how they are hurting people. I'm sure that there was no collusion between lawyers in the 20th century getting together and saying 'let's proliferate and take over all of the country's courts and legislatures and let s pass laws so we can usurp all their power and make ourselves rich. Probably there were some power mad individuals trying that, but the vast majority were just doing their jobs and taking advantage of all the breaks the law makers were giving them." He paused for a moment and looked at Jessie. "All right, we try to use statistics gleened from our anecdotes to jog some legislatures. Then we do the same with the lawyer's organizations. But if we can't get some action from the system this time, we take our case 208 directly to the people."

209 XVIII CHAPTER XVIII

Several weeks later, events were still unfolding at a rapid pace. More ads were run in the Los Angeles area, and the response was still tremendous Dan had engaged the services of the accounting firm he wanted, and appointed an assistant to help select PLEA office managers across the country and coordinate their operations. As most of those offices comenced functioning, they tried the advertising approach that had been so successful in Los Angeles. The results were mixed. The larger states with a history of recent litigation increases, reacted to the call for anecdotes, volunteers, and donations much like the people in California. Smaller states with with fewer large population centers, although still showing a marked response, were somewhat slower. The catagorization of a significant number of anecdotes had shown that excessive cost was the complaint of the largest number of respondents, delay was the second most cited reason for not getting justice, an amazing number claimed that one of the

lawyers in their case was dishonest, many people felt that they were damaged by nuisance lawsuits without any

210 foundati on, and the fifth place complaint was incompetant lawyers. Catagorizing these stories was very difficult and somewhat arbitrary. It was necessary to cut through vociferous language and outright hatred in many cases, to try to ascertain the facts. Most did not fit neatly into a particular category, but crept into two and sometimes three different groups. For example, delay and excessive expense understandibly went together. So did nuisance suits and crooked lawyers. The catagorizer simply used his subjective judgment to get a feeling for the main thrust of the story. The amazing thing to all of the readers was the depth of feeling most of the writers had for their particular problem. Dan wasn't sure what to do with one small group of responses which he had not expected. This was a group of people who had written about criminal law problems. "PLEA was not organized to include criminal law. I'm certain that many people, both guilty and innocent, have encountered difficulties with that area. However, a great deal of attention has been given to criminal law since the Warren Supreme Court days. If we encounter anyone qualified in criminal law in our organization we should ask them to at least contact the people and refer them to organizations better equipped 211

than ours to handle their problems. He ordered that any donations sent in from that group be returned imediately. Some of the civil law problems that had been sent in were horrifying. Dan had instructed all catagorizers to place any stories they felt were highly unusual in a specified box, then he and Jessie and many other legally trained volunteers, (there were a number of lawyers both practicing and retired who were donating their time to PLEA) would go over those special cases when they had time. They divided this group of worst cases into: those that were possible newsworthy and those that were

just sad stories. Then, the cases that possibly involved wrong doing were given to one of the PLEA lawyers to follow up and the newsworthy possibilities were assigned to someone to verify the facts. One group of stories contained questionable billing practices. No one was certain whether the practices were legal, but one of the PLEA lawyers was checking. They involved billing policies that many of the lawyers use. They bill for their services on an incremental basis. Some use 15 minutes as their minimum increment, some use 30 minutes, and some use 60 minutes. Their fees varied from one dollar per minute to 5 212

dollars per minute and the questionable practices included billing for phone calls the lawyer claimed to make to the client and the client didn't answer, (1 increment); papers dropped off at the lawyers office, (1 increment); lawyer to lawyer calls, (many increments). The list was endless. "If the rest of societies business was billed this way, we would all go broke," one reader said. "Yeh," another answered, "but it would sure make all of the waitresses rich." Several of the respondents claimed that the lawyers in charge of trusts for their relatives had forged signatures of the beneficiary and used the money for their own purposes. Some said that trusts for mentally retarded persons had been completely exhausted and the retarded person sent to the state mental hospital. A recurring ending to these questionable legal practides by attorneys was that when confronted, the offending attorney always suggested, "So sue me." They seemed to know that their chances of being sued for mishandling sums less than $10,000 were slim. In spite of the sensational stories in the newspapers of very rich people being ripped off by their lawyers, it was apparent that a far greater number of average people

213 were getting robbed of their smaller fortunes. Dan ordered PLEA's attorneys to turn all verifiable cases of fraud over to the state associations. "However," he said, "my experience has been that the bar is a self interested monopoly bent on preserving the personal and financial interests of its

members. In the past, they have failed to meaningfully descipline lawyers charged with crimes of malpractice. In fact they invariably go out of their way to stonewall any charges made against their members." "We might get a little action from some of the state bar associations once they see evidence of the public's disgust with their abuses," Jessie said. Dan said, "No profession has ever adequately policed itself,yet for the one with the most power, not a state has instituted an independent agency to handle attorney descipline. PLEA is backing legislation which we helped get introduced into several state legislatures this year, so maybe the state bar associations will make some token effort to reduce its vast backlog of pending cases. Everytime a little pressure is put on them they pretend a flurry of reform until the pressure goes away, then they revert back to their old practices. It's so obvious, we need some new approach to this overall problem if we are ever going to help the people."

214 While waiting for the results of the PLEA organizations tallies, Dan made a trip to Washington D.C. to see his old friend Senator Dane Gentry. Senator Gentry had been in the forefront of the battle against the legal profession's undue influence in Congress and was recently appointed chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was the first non-lawyer to ever hold the position, but his seniority and long term friendship with the majority leader, had finally landed him this important chairmanship. Senator Gentry was a huge bulk of a man with a bulbous red nose and a mane of long white hair. Whenever he rose to speak in the senate, everyone knew that they were in for a show Always the champion of the oppressed he had a whole list of uphill battles underway. However, none of his causes fascinated him like the curbing of " those God damned lying bastards with their silver tongues mesmerizing the public while they use their law degrees to steal the country out from under us." No action by the majority leader had raised the ire of the legal organizations like his appointment of Dane Gentry to head the Judiciary Committee. Dan had met the Senator several years earlier and 215

each had filed the others name for future reference. They both knew somehow that their thinking was in tune

and would bring them together on some cause or other. At their meeting in Washington, Dan asked the Senator to allow him, as a member of PLEA to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about reforming the legal system. "Hell yes, son," the Senator bellowed, "I knew the first time we met that we would be of use to each other. The only surprise is that it has taken this long." Dan explained about the surprising response PLEA had gotten from ads all across the country. He outlined the type of testimony he felt he would be able to supply and the direction of the efforts of his organization. "Just what I need, son. Those legal-eagle bastards on my committee have managed to torpedo every investigation I've initiated. My hearings on legal reform are just about on the ropes. How soon could you be ready?" "I think that the PLEA organizations could probably get their initial findings to me by next week," Dan said. "I could be ready by,the week after." "Splendid! Now keep this as quiet as you can. I'll put you down for testimony on the 14th, and I'll have to list your name and your organizaton. They're 216

certain to get in touch with you to try to find out what you' re going to say." "Who will?" Dan asked. "The legal lobby. I don t think they will be too careful now because they think they ve got my investigation stymied, but they'll check you and PLEA. This committee is the lawyers first line of defense against any kind of reform getting to the floor of the senate. That's why I tried so long and so hard to gain this chairmanship, but now that I've got it I can't even put a dent in their control." Back in California, Dan put out an urgent request for some kind of preliminary results of the surreys being taken. Many of the offices had already sent in their talleys. He spent the next week preparing his testimony. He figured that with a little luck, the legal lobby back in Washington would not have heard anything about PLEA's campaign to elicit responses from the people. Even if they had, they probably could not envision any possible threat to their position. Dan had also asked Jessie to back him up in his preparation and to go with him to the committee hearing.

"I know this is sudden," he told her, "but if we don't take advantage of this break now it may be a long time before we get this good of a chance again."

217 XIX CHAPTER XIX

Senator Dane Gentry gavelled the Senate Judiciary Committee to order at lO:OO A.M. on the morning of the 14th. There were only five of the nine committee members present. The committee had been taking testimony about legal reform, including tort reform, for the past 4 weeks. Tort reform is the attempt primarily by the insurance companies,to pass legislation limiting the huge settlements juries had been awarding in personal injury caues. A tort is when the intentional or careless act. of a person or institution has directly caused harm to another person or institution. The Courtroom Attorneys Association had a vested interest in defeating any reform measures since most personal injury lawsuits are handled by a trial lawyer on a contingency basis. That means the attorney would get his fee, usually 30 to 60 percent, out of the award the jury would give to his client. In addition, a large number of these personal injury cases were settled out of court just by the threat that the lawyer could convince a jury to make a large award to his client. 218 These out of court settlements were even more lucrative to the lawyer than the jury awards since he still got his percentage of the settlement without having to conduct a trial. The members of the Judiciary Committee, all being lawyers except Senator Gentry, had given many indications that they would like to halt the hearings. They had also, except for Gentry, expressed their opinion that the many people who had testiflied in favor of tort reform represented a small minority of the people. They said that the average American never ran into any problems with the system and that tort reform would hurt people injured severely. Their conclusions were seemingly reached in spite of the fact that for 4 weeks they had heard testimony from every part of the country, involving all walks of

life. One witness represented affluent New Yorkers who had invested large amounts of money to live on an island in the East River. The allure was an aerial tram direct to downtown Manhattan. However, the threat of lawsuits and the resulting exhorbitant insurance rates forced the tram to shut down and the people to utilize the already crowded surface transportation. Sporting goods manufacturers had sent several witnesses to testify. Many had been forced out of the

219 manufacture of sports equipment by lawsuits or the threat of lawsuits or simply by the huge increases in their product liability insurance. Some were unable to get liability coverage at any price. Numerous cities throughout the United States were also forced to close their public facilities. Jessie's hometown of Laguna Beach had found itself in the untenable position of having to close down its lifeguard service at the beaches. It seems that a precedent had been established that government agencies that provide lifeguards are liable for beach accidents, whereas those that provide no lifeguards are not liable. Laguna had been required to pay several million dollars to a boy who had severly injured himself when he dove into the ocean and struck a rock. The town of Skookum Washington had to pay $2,500,000 to the passenger in an automobile who had broken his neck in a traffic accident. This small town, like many others, was the victim of the 'Deep Pocket Principle'. Despite the fact that no vote was ever taken by any legislative body, judges and lawyers had created the rediculous precedent that any party named as defendant in tort cases could be made to pay entire avards themselves if for any reason the other defendants were unable to pay. This meant that even if one 220

defendant in a case with several defendants was only one percent responsible for damages, that defendant could be made to pay l00% of the award to the plaintiff. Of course that interpretation also guarranteed that the lawyers would get their fees. The witnesses before the committee who defended that practice (all of whom were lawyers) claimed that this principle developed because of the lawyers and judges concern for the injured and had nothing to do with the fact that the lawyers contingency fees would

not have been paid in many cases without this interpretation. However, when Gentry asked each of these witnesses if he had ever heard of any trial lawyer donating his percentage of the fee to the injured for the same reason, none of them ever had. The medical profession had provided their usual number of examples of huge malpractice awards. However, the one that received the most attention in the press involved a woman psychic who claimed that her psychic powers had been rendered useless as a result of a C.T. scan performed in a large hospital. The jury awarded the woman more than 1 million dollars. Doctors also testified that the field of medicine hit the hardest by malpractice suits was obstetrics. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 221 reported that 73% of its 24,500 members had been sued at least once. Three thousand doctors in that specialty had abandoned their practice. Insurance companies cancelled insurance coverage for thousands of day care centers, not because any of them had been convicted of child abuse, but rather because it was so easy for attorneys to convince prospective clients to sue their child's day care center. Such cases usually dragged on for so long, and were so impossible to judge fairly, that it was prudent to offer a settlement long before trial. The New York Transit Authority sent one of their representatives to testify to the committee. A man attempting suicide had jumped in front of one of their subway trains. He was unsuccessful in the suicide attempt, but was severly injured. His lawyer contended that the motorman was negligent for not stopping the train before it struck his client. Facing prolonged litigation and an uncertain outcome because of the extent of the man's injuries, the transit authority settled for $650,000. Testimony before the committee showed that lawyers were fabricating clients from before birth to after death. One lawyer filed a suit and collected a settlement on behalf of a fetus, and it's father, whose

222 drunken mother fell down a flight of steps and aborted. Another successful settlement was gained by a lawyer on behalf of a dead man, and his heirs, who had requested

burial and was cremated instead on instructions of his wife. In spite of the publicity these bizarre examples had given Senator Gentry's Committee, the trial lawyer members were still trying to abandon the hearings. That was why the chairman had jumped at the chance to have Dan present the statistics on his responses from the PLEA ads. He felt that his last chance to muster enough support to get tort reform to the floor of the senate rested on today's hearings. His first witness on the fourteenth was designed to summarize all of the testimony that had gone on for four weeks. The testimony was given by a prestigious college professor from Georgetown Law School. Senator Gentry did most of the questioning since the other committel members considered professor Hiram Lamb to hold views contrary to their own, in spite of the fact that he was a lawyer himself. Professor Lamb had a deep abiding love for the law, but abhored the direction the present legal system was heading. For the past several years he had worked tirelessly with one of the members of the Supreme Court to change that direction. 223 "A good legal system is essential to democracy." he said. "A good system commands the trust of the people and it's the trust of the people that allows the democratic processes to function. Our legal system as it is presently operating is rapidly erroding the trust of the people." "In what ways, Professor?" Gentry asked. "We've heard in the testimony before this committee the past several weeks how ludicrous some of the litigation is getting. I m ashamed of my chosen profession. It is not enough for a profession to simply cater to every litigous whim of its clientele. The medical profession, the teaching profession, and yes, the plumbers, the mechanics, the carpenters have all made tremendous strides in leadership. Have you seen a modern septic system these days?" The people in the hearing room snickered. "Yes, a modern septic system," he continued. "It is a marvelous application of plunbing technology. I live on an isolated 26 acres in the country and my entire home functions as well or better than many city homes. So I say, not only is the septic system a marvel of efficiency, but it has been engineered to protect the environment, the water table and the health of the user. In addition, the cost of the entire system is about the

224

equivalent of one hours operation of one courtroom, hearing a silly legal confrontation like the ones we've been listening to. And the embarrassment comes from being a lawyer and living in a world where my medical care has improved tremendously, schools are constantly being upgraded, every aspect of my house is vastly better, in fact, every aspect of living has improved. But what have we lawyers,who enjoy these improvements from the other areas, done for the people we are supposed to serve? Less than nothing--It's almost as if we have turned our expertise against the people." "Those legal confrontations, as you call them, are not silly to the participants," the committee member from Georgia shouted. "No they are not Senator, and those people deserve a forum for their complaints. But does every disputant, no matter the import or lack of import of his problem deserve the right to tie up our overburdened courts through interminable delays and legal mumbo-jumbo just because he can afford a fancy practitioner of that mumbo-jumbo? Think of the many deserving people who are destroyed by the almost totally constipated court Gentry waited while the professor took a drink of water. Not one committee member spoke, so he said, 225 "What would you do to unburden the courts?" "There are any number of non adjudicating disputes. I wouldn't my profession's lack of leadership could point to one new system that well as the modern septic system." The crowd laughed this time. The professor continued. "There are any number of alternatives to hiring an attorney. In addition to small claims courts which are still courts, and para-legal or textbook advice which merely help a person understand the twisted jargon and procedures of the present faulty system, there are many who advocate mediation, arbitration, conciliation, and despute resolution. It's definitely not a problem of a lack of alternatives to the present system." "Have any of these systems been tried?"A senator asked. "Well, most states are operating successful small courtroom options for feel so badly about in its field if we functioned half so

claims courts within very restrictive limits. In addition, para-legals and self help law books are available, but also operate under the almost totally restrictive watchfulness of the trial lawyers associations." The committee members flinched. 226 "The other options cannot be tried in this country until three things occur." The professor continued. "Are some of these systems utilized in other countries?" Another senator inquired. ''Yes." "What three things?" The senator asked. "First, the legal profession would need to take the lead in reforming the present system. If they do not stop their overwhelming opposition to any reform that might hamper their earning power, reform will have to be thrust upon them. Secondly, legislation will be needed to implement the utilization of any alternative systems. So far, all legislatures have avoided voting any new laws necessary for their operation. I presume because of the same reason the trial lawyers oppose change. And finally, the people need to be aided and educated to the use of all alternate procedures." "Ah think we should break for lunch now," the senator from Georgia blurted. Gentry asked the witness. "How much more testimony do you have professor?" "If I could just have a few minutes more to summarize, I would be finished , if no one has any questions for me." The committee all shook their heads emphatically

227

no. That s fine." Gentry said "We have one more person to hear this afternoon and if the committee agrees we could give you time to finish and you would not need to return." There was no objection.

"Go on Professor." "I hope that the testimony before this committee the past several weeks has established beyond any possible doubt that there is overwhelming need for legal reform. One of my doctoral candidates did his dissertation on the cost to society that the explosion of litigation has had since the 1940 s. That decade of the 40's was spent recovering from the worst depression this country has ever had plus fighting a world war of survival. However, in retrospect, those times seem almost tranquil. At least the enemy was known and the goals for society were well defined. It was about that time our law schools started releasing upon society an army of lawyers, both educationally and morally ill equipped. From the forties to the eighties, the general population increased l00%, but the number of lawyers increased by 1500%. I m afraid this army led the people into our present litigious dilemma. They could have done what society gave them the authority to do, namely help 228 the people solve their problems. However, they chose to use their power over the legislatures and the judiciary to make themselves as rich as possible." "My student, after exhaustive research, concluded that during that span of time lawyers have added substantially to the cost of everything we use or touch. The average person utilizing any kind of health care in 1940 spent 99% of his money for that care and only l% for legal action resulting from that care. Now, the percentage is 62% of his health dollar goes for his actual care and a whopping 28% of everyone's health care dollar ends up in some lawyer's pocket. Because of slip and fall litigation at markets and pesticide liability, our. food dollar that went entirely for food in 1940 is now divided. Eighty percent actually brings you food, 20% goes to lawyers. Everyone knows the percentage of his car dollar that goes to the lawyer related insurance industry, but does he realize that every manufacturer of every part on that car has his own product liability, employer liability, and other potential legal costs. Your automotive dollar in 1940 that brought you 99% auto, is now 32% legal fees. This lawyer surcharge is included in our costs for clothing, housing, appliances, shipping, recreation, transportation, travel--every dollar we earn and spend is devided between the supplier 229 of the product or service and the lawyers. And the bad news is that the lawyers share gets bigger and bigger." "If the money spent were helping the people create

a better safer society, that might be different. However, almost every advancement we have made could have been acheived cheaper and more quickly without litigation. In fact, some of the costly litigation benefits the enemies of society the most . Some even damage the lawyers own stake in society. All of us would get upset if anyone tried to tamper with our freedom of speech. However, nonsensical lawsuits against publishers and authors have caused many literary contributions to be altered or dropped altogether. How about national defense? Our tax dollars for defense projects that protect us all are severely drained by legal action or threats of legal action against defense contractors. "There are actually useful services to society that are too costly, litigation wise, for anyone to continue to perform. Large numbers of obstetricians have discontinued practicing. Recreation parks have closed because, in effect, the lawyer wants too much. None of this benefits society. For these reasons and more, I hope my profession takes the lead in helping solve the legal dilemma. We who know the law, who were 230 given the priviledge of doing societies legal business. who would be the best equipped to offer solutions, can do no less, I thank you." The few reporters and spectators applauded. The comittee sat stone faced. "This hearing is dismissed until 1:00 PM." Senator Dane Gentry said. When Gentry called the afternoon session to order, the number of participants had greatly increased. All of the comittee members had mysteriously appeared in their chairs behind the long podium. The section reserved for the press had to be expanded and some of the spectators were now standing. Dan began his testimony by thanking the comittee for allowing him to appear before them. He then recited a brief history of PLEA, and explained his organization's goals. There were practically no questions even from Gentry who seemed to be waiting for Dan to reach the heart of his report. Jessie sat next to Dan at the witness table, and supremely organized, as usual, fed Dan the documents an notes he required. After explaining the decision PLEA made to go directly to the people, Dan sensed the impatience of the entire hearing room, and skipped over

231 his prepared remarks concerning how it was accomplished. The room full of people had gotten the word during the brief lunch break that important thing. were happening at the Judiciary Committee hearing room. They somehow knew that Dan was altering his testimony to accomodate their curiosity. He read to the committee members the summary of the responses the PLEA organization. had received. Jessie had pointed out during their preparation session. that the weakest part of their position was probably the raw statistics, so why not dispose of them early and then close his testimony with an explanation of the importance of those statistics. Dan did just that. For about 20 minutes he explained how 86% of the respondants mentioned excessive fees as one of the reasons they felt they had not received justice from the present system. Unreasonable delay in the judiciary process vas cited by 79%. He explained that those categories overlapped because of the relationship between the two. Crooked lawyers had caused the disillusionment of 43% of the people and problems caused by incompetent lawyers were cited by 41%. A fuLl 30% felt that the lawsuit they participated in had no foundation, but dragged on and on exhausting their entire savings and income. "But far more important than these shocking 232 statistics," as his voice grew louder, "is what they represent. These letters we received were not from corporations, manufacturers, doctors, or small cities that have been driven to the wall by our legal system. They were written by average Americans. The people who form the base of our society. The long suffering taxpayer who ultimately pays the price of all of those bigger losers also. The heart of society is screaming for help." "Come now, Mr. Jordan, y all can't conclude that all of society is being jeopardized from a few letters?" The Senator from Georgia faked exaggerated disbelief ." "Hardly a few letters, Senator. As I explained earlier, these are very preliminary statistics. PLEA began with one ad in one newspaper and as donations came in expanded to other newspapers across the country. We have not utilized T.V., radio, nor any other medium simply because we have been unable to keep up with the tremendous number of responses we have gotten. As our organization expands, it is our intention to reach more people. To date, these statistics represent letters received from 41 of the 50 states. Close to 1 million letters were

read by PLEA volunteers and were used in compiling the preceding statistics. Our backlog of letters not read has reached another million."

233 "And you have accepted donations from these people?" The Senator asked sarcastically. "Yes sir, most letters have contained donations." "I hope you are reporting this income properly." "Blatt and Jackson are our accountants." Dan said. The audience seemed to be thoroughly enjoying Dan's testimony, and the reporters were all writing furiously. Dan concluded his presentation by recounting a few of the actual letters to further establish the authenticity of the encounters that average people are having with the present legal system. At the end of his presentation, since there were no questions from the committee members, Senator Gentry thanked Dan and his organization for their testimony. Then with the spectators and press hanging on his every word, said, "I feel that the testimony we have heard for the past 4 weeks, culminating in the fine presentations of these two distinguished gentlemen today, has established beyond a doubt that our legal system as presently constituted is in dire need of reform. Therefore, I will entertain a motion that these preliminary hearings be expanded to include witnesses whose expertise could help us formulate legislation to that effect." The other committee members all covered their

234 microphones and conferred for only a few seconds. Then the Senator from Georgia in a loud booming voice said, "On the contrary Mr. Chairman, All Ah've seen and heard in this room has been a diatribe by a few disgruntled, self appointed representatives of 'the people'---whoever they might be---who have been disappointed by our esteemed courts." The audience booed and hissed almost en masse. The chairman rapped his gavel hard. "The audience will come to order," he boomed. "The Senator from Georgia was saying?"

"Ah could remind everyone here that every cote case has a winner and a loser. what we are seeing is a circus of the losers, by the losers, and apparently for the losers." More booing. "I'll clear this hearing room if there is one more such outburst by the spectators. Go on Senator." "Ah move that this committee suspend forthwith and permanently this hearing." "I second the motion," came from Gentry's right. The chariman dejectedly asked, "All in favor?" All the committee menber's hands went up. "Let the record show that there was one negative vote. This hearing is concluded." 235 xx CHAPTER xx

The reporters all packed up and left the room immediately. As if they expected the hearings to end this way. The spectators milled about and talked in loud voices. As Jessie and Dan dejectedly began gathering their papers, professor Lamb came through the crowd. "Congratulations, young man. You certainly made them sit up and take notice." He said. Dan took the outstretched hand. "Professor Lamb, I thought you had left. "I m afraid my testimony didn't help Senator Gentry, but you were superb this morning." "On the contrary, my boy. I've been working for 15 years utilizing the facilities of a great law school and receiving help from some of the countries more prestigious individuals and I have been unable to kindle the imagination of the great Masses. You realize, that is the only avenue of survival this country has. You may have created the communication link we've needed. I just hope that we are not too late." Dan was dumbfounded. "Professor, Senator Gentry

236

broke the trial lawyers grasp of the Judiciary Comittee, he forced them to consider legal reform, you, I, and many others gave our best shot during our testimony, the committee just voted to halt the hearings for good, and you talk as if we were victorious." "Tut,tut, my boy. That result was a forgone conclusion. Surely you didn't expect eight trial lawyers to go along with Senator Gentry and vote for reform?" "If it was all decided before we testified, then why did we waste our time?" Dan was baffled. "The answer I've given to that question for the past 15 years has been, 'Because we have to'. This wonderful country of ours didn' t happen because of some accident. People back through the ages kept trying. They didn't win all of their battles, but they didn't give up either. I knew that Gentry was a good man, but he was overwhelmed by circumstances. His committee was doomed from the beginning, but I testified anyway. I never thought that this hearing would provide me with the answer I've been searching for all these years." "What answer, sir?" "You honestly don't know what you've got?" ''No." "You have the attention of the American People. Only a few times in history has the power of the people

237

been focused on a problem, but when it is, things happen. We would not even be a country if the silly circumstances of.the Boston Tea Party had not focused the colonists attention on taxation. Texas became independent from Mexico because of the Alamo. We expanded coast to coast because of the forty-niner rush. Franklin Delano Roosevelt used Pearl Harbor to focus our attention of the Japanese threat. And a stupid breakin at the Watergate Hotel alerted the people to the biggest threat this country has ever had from within." At this point, the professor took notice of the beautiful woman next to Dan hanging on his every word. Dan awkwardly introduced his wife. The professor said. "Something more than Just a wife, I presume. I watched the efficiency with which she directed your testimony."

Jessie blushed. "We worked together on his presentation." Then she stood up and looked the professor in the eye. "You said, 'the only avenue of survival for this country'. You said 'the answer you've been searching for'. You said, 'you hope we're not too late'. What did you mean?" "I see why you brought this lady. She doesn't miss much, does she? If you two would accompany me down

238

to the cafeteria for some refreshment, I'll answer your questions. They found a secluded table at the Senate cafeteria. "I would like to tell you the whole story if you have some time," the professor began. "By all means," Jessie and Dan both echoed. The professor said,"I started teaching law at Georgetown U. in the early 50's. During the next 15 years, I learned a lot about the workings of this fascinating capitol of ours. I also made some very influential friends, including a present member of the Supreme Court. My friends and I watched the proliferation of the legal profession. I'm sure that most everyone in the country, even the least observant, were cognizant of the fact that lawyers were becoming increasigly dominant in every aspect of our lives. My friends and I, however, had unusual insights into the degree of involyment of lawyers at every level of government. At first we accepted the theory that as society became more complex, the need for legal expertise increased. But we soon noticed that while most of the average lawyers were neck deep in their clients problems, some seemed to be establishing a network of influential positions both in government and in the legal organizations. By the late 70's, we became alarmed. Imagine, if you will, the 239 concern we felt when the development. of the Nixon administration began to confirm some of our wildest speculations." "What speculations?" Dan asked incredulously. The professor said."We had seen what we suspected was a psuedo-organization linking lawyers in very unlikely positions. They had jobs in one of our political parties that usually went to lesser trained individuals. They seemed to control a huge monetary aparatus. Our

wild speculations involved what might happen in light of the fact that these suspicious lawyers were in control of vital positions from top to bottom in our political party apparatus, the professional lawyers associations, and all areas of government. Then the Watergate scandal erupted. We didn't know whether our worst fears were being realized or not. We still don't know whether our super secret lawyer group had control at that time. However, the fact that the American Public got sufficiently aroused made that question moot. They in effect did what had never been done before or since. They removed a sitting president from office." "You mentioned a super secret lawyer group?" Jessie questioned. "Following Nixon and Agnew's removal from office, my friends and I noticed a definite decrease of activity 240 in the nebulous network we had detected. However, for the past several years we have watched this same group step up it's involvement in the same organizations it was infiltrating prior to the Watergate scandals." "Those organizations are?" "Key positions in the Senate and House,and the most powerful professional associations of attorneys. And this time they are placing their people in Key positions in both political parties." Jessie looked Lamb in the eye again. "You actually believe that lawyers are doing all this?" "Certainly not all lawyers, my dear. In fact, the vast majority of lawyers in this country don't have a clue that this is taking place. That's their crime. They're all so busy making and spending money that they have totally abrogated all responsibility to our government, the American People, and even their own professional organizations. This corrupt group trying to gain control is not totally composed of lawyers. Much of the group's funding comes from ultra right wing financiers, trying to remake the country in the image they want." "Do you know what their goals are?" "No, not exactly. Like all fanatics of the right or the left, they probably don't even agree among 241 themselves. Their hatred for freedom is sufficient to bind them together. That's why they work equally as

well infiltrating the Democrats as the Republicans. They undoubtedly chose to work through the legal profession because first, they saw the powers that the lawyers had amassed over the years, and secondly the obsession the lawyers had with money, left their professional store unminded---so to speak." "Who are---'they'?" Dan began to sound speptical. "At this time, we prefer not to name individuals or organizations. When the time comes to expose the conspiracy, surprise will be our best weapon. We have gathered voluminous data that must not be compromised until the proper circumstances exist to annihilate the threat." Lamb said. "Is that where PLEA comes in?" Jessie asked. "Heavens no!" the professor said. "Foolish me Please forgive me. I often get so intense in my own presentations that I forget my listener s point of view. That comes from teaching too long, I'm afraid." "Then what is it we can do for you, sir?" Jessie asked. "The most important aspect of our plan does not involve exposing the expurgaters. If that were so, we would have done with it. No, that won't work because these conspirators would merely go underground again,

242 and bide their time. The circumstance we require more than anything else is the attention of the practicing attorneys. Only they can clean up their own organizations. Only they can redirect their profession toward more helpful goals. Only they can purge their ranks of the power abusers and the mercenaries who are ripe for corruption. The vast multitude of lawyers out there are honest hard working individuals who have kept their nose to the grindstone so diligently they have let others set their direction for them. The same could have happened to the other professions except for the fact that those professions do not possess the potential for abusive control that the legal profession does. By simply utilizing the very bad laws their groups pushed through the legislatures, by seldom opposing incompetent judges, and mainly by compounding the situation with their own greed, they have let the American People down." "You asked what you can do to help. In your group you have the most powerful tool this country has to offer---the intense concentration of the public's outrage about a problem. Please allow me to help you use that tool on your problem---not my problem. The

people have given you a mandate to help them with their troubles as they perceive them. Don't let the people 243

down, because that mandate is fragile. They will not trust you with it a second time, so you must be wise and use their power to achieve the reform of the legal system that they desire." "How does that help your cause." Dan asked. "As I said, we must wait for reform to come from the legal profession itself. The practicing attorney, the Judge, the lawyer who is a legislator, have concentrated so long on rigging a system that maximizes their own reward at the expense of the people, that they have become blind to anything else. If you are successful in directing the wrath of the people in a constructive way to force the lawyer to look at himself, I'm certain that they will respond. I am hopeful that I can provide them with the information they will need to clean up their organizations." Lamb said. "What kind of information?" "As I said before, my group has compiled extensive dossiers on those we consider to be the chief conspirators. We feel that the shaky leadership at present is divided between a senator from one of our southern states and a very wealthy industrialist from the Detroit area." "When the time is right, the lawyers need to know that their largest professional organization, the 244 National Courtroom Attorney's Association has just elected as its president a lawyer from Los Angeles who has been active in the secret conspirators group for years." "Do you mind telling us his name?" Dan asked. "Of course not, it's John Sarchet, the new president of the National Courtroom Attorney's Association."

245

XXI CHAPTER XXI

Jessie and Dan caught the early morning commuter flight from Dulles back to LosAngeles International. They landed in L.A. about 1:00 P.M. It was hot and smoggy, but Sheila picked them up at the front door of their terminal. By phoning ahead from Dulles, they could tell Sheila what time to cruise by the door and having picked up their luggage they simply stepped into the car and headed for the freeway. On the freeway south to Newport Beach, they had about an hour to discus. all of the events of the past few days. Jessie told Sheila about the trial lawyer dominated committee, about old Dane Gentry, and their newly found informant, Professor Lamb. At the end of her explanation about the professor s conspiracy theory, Dan said, "It took me 15 years to build PLEA into some kind of an organization that I felt understood the lawyers abuse of the civil law system. Then the professor came on so strongly about his theory that lawyers were being used to overthrow our government, I thought that he wanted me to change PLEA's 246

direction and go after the conspirators." "So did I, " Jessie said. "There is no way I could have done that. I believe that his story is plausible and I know he is sincere, but I felt that we would be betraying all of those people who sent us their stories and their money if we changed course now. I was so pleased when he apologized for misleading us through his enthusiasm for his cause. He accepted my invitation to come here and help us plan our next steps in light of our latest failure to work within the system." "That's great," Sheila said enthusiastically. "What exciting things have happened here, mom? First, how are Susanne and Kevin and Kim?"

"They're doing great. The three of them have rented a house boat at Lake Shasta. They are up there right now." "Oh! How I envy them. Just like old times at Shasta," Jessie said. "When we get some time let's all of us take a camping vacation together." Sheila and Dan both said, "I'm for that." They all laughed and then Jessie asked, "Have you received any communication from the buyers of your business?" "Yes, I'm scheduled for another deposition next 247

week. How many times can they ask me the same questions?" "I don't know mom. Under the suit we filed against them for non-payment, both parties were allowed to conduct discovery . We took their depositions and they took yours. Now they have filed a countersuit against you and as I understand it they are suing each other over a legal technicality as to whether their corporation was valid when they consumated the deal with Dad. I'm sure this is more legal delay tactics because they are still conducting the business. I guess you will just have to give your deposition to the new lawyers involved. If we could locate the bulk of property you and dad transferred to them we could close them down with a writ of attachment." "Don't worry dear. I love my job with PLEA so much, I would just as soon drop the whole suit against them." "I know, but we can't just let them take your property and get off scott free." Jessie pleaded. "Well, I just hate to see you spending so much time on my problems, when there's so much you can do to help PLEA. In fact, let me change the subject. The mail, with the anecdotes and the donations is still pouring in. I got the cutest little story you've ever 248

heard from a lady in Alabama. It's in that envelope there between the seats. Read it aloud so that Dan can hear it too."

Jessie read: "Many years ago before civilization came to most of the world, there was a beautiful land of trees and hills and valleys. The people of the land called themselves "The Free". As time went by, more people came from the north and the south and the east and the west, and The Free People said 'Welcome to the land of The Free'. As time passed and the population grew, 'The Free People' decided that they needed a Leader, so they called a meeting. "We don't want to make the same mistake the Eye Rans to the east made," a wise leader said. "They allowed their Eye Tola to preach religion to them, and soon he took over all of Eye Ran and: made the people his slaves." "Yes," another spoke up, "The Koobass to the south trusted Dic Tator, one of

249

their wise men, and he took over and made the Koobass his slaves." "To the north," someone added, "The Roousans trusted a group called The Par Dee and they made the Roossans their slaves." "The Jappos to the east were also enslaved by a man who said he was their God," another said. "He called himself Em Pror." "How do we choose a leader for The Land of the Free without becoming slaves?" They all cried. A very wise old man spoke up. "We must not let one person or one group seize power over us. We must separate the powers that we give so that noone will have it all." So they did. They appointed a group

called the Sen Tors to make their laws. Then they chose a group called Korts to make sure the Sen Tor's laws were fair. Only then could their leader enforce those laws. "That is good," they all said. "This 250

separation of powers will protect us brom being enslaved by the Eye Tolas or the Dic Tators or the Par Dees or the Em Prors." Years passed and the people raised much corn and were very happy. However, they did have small disagreements that were too numerous for the leader to solve, so they created a new group called the La Yurz. They provided the La Yurs with badges that gave them the power to solve the small disagreements. In return, the Free People gave the La Yurs corn. More happy years passed because the system worked well. Then many of the La Yurs became Sen Tors, and more joined the Korts. As Sen Tors, they passed new laws that the Free People must take all of their disagreements to the Korts. They also decreed that both parties in a dispute must hire a La Yurs to do all of the talking to the Korts. Soon every problem was taking years to solve and the Free People had to pay more and more corn to the La Yurs. 251

When the La Yurz discovered that they could make the laws, interpret the laws, and enforce the laws, they said "Why do we need a leader?" So the La Yurz did away with the leader of The Land of the Free, and then they changed the name to The Land of the La Yurz."

The three of them were still laughing when they reached Newport. "I must show that letter to Professor Lamb when he arrives," Dan laughed. Professor Lamb flew into Orange County the day before Dan's scheduled meeting to report on their Washington trip, and he did indeed enjoy the Alabama lady's story. Dan said laughingly, "The conspiracy you have uncovered seems to be nothing mcre than history repeating itself." The next day, Dan called the meeting to order. In addition to Professor Lamb, there were PLEA leaders from several different states and many from other areas of California. The first part of the meeting was consumed by status reports from varying sections of the country. It was obvious to all that the flood of response had not

252 diminished. If anything, the people were still overwhelming the facilities and the manpower PLEA had available. Dan then introduced Professor Lamb, and the professor gave a stirring speech. It was brief and to the point and much to Dan s relief included nothing about the professr s conspiracy theory.He concluded with the admonition that the people will trust this organization to bring them results but once. PLEA must be accurate as to what it is the people want and then make immediate recognizable progress toward those ends. "Otherwise," he stressed, "they could irreparably damage the people's ability to focus on the problem." Dan thanked the Professor and then gave his own I believe it incumbent that we chart a new direction report on his appearance before the Judiciary Committee in Washington. He also reported that PLEA's statistical summaries were being sent to every professional lawyers association in the country with the request that those organizations come forward to help solve the crisis. "At the risk of appearing overly pessimistic, " he declared, "I must conclude that our efforts to make progress through established governmental and professional entities is at an impasse And, taking heed of the Professor's warning that time is of the essence, I believe it incumbent that we chart a new direction

253

At this point, Dan recognized an almost

apoplectic member from Texas. "It s about time you-all began to recognize the real problem heah. The people are telling us they want the lawyers lassoed and hogtied. They re tired of dealing with them and they didn t send us their donations to watch us play games with those bastards. Ah advocate that we put all of our money and resources behind a constitutional amendment prohibiting trained lawyers from holding elective public office. The drastic proposal from the gentleman from Texas ellicited a lively round of debate. Dan and the professor listened fascinated as the arguments and counter arguments got louder and louder. Soon, it was apparent that the pro forces were overwhelming those against with the sheer intensity of their rhetoric. After several minutes of trying, Dan gained the attention of the anti group. "I think that our give and take has deteriorated to a level that precludes any logical choice. The proposal from the Texas member certainly has merit and let's continue to consider it. At this time I think that it would be in order to consider alternate courses of action also." Jessie rose to suggest that a less drastic 254 approach may be preferable to 'kicking the bastards out of government completely'. "PLEA has, over the years. amassed data on the workability of several alternatives. Increasing the scope of the small claims court system, training of para-legals to aid the people in dealling with civil law, our own self help textbooks to---"Little lady, little lady," the Texan shouted, "do you-all think that those good folks out there are going to wait for us to conduct social experimentation while their lives are being demolished by smooth talkin sons o bitches? They want action and they want it now." "Please Mr. Austin let Jessie finish." "Ah'm sorry mam---I get too rambunctious sometimes." "I understand," Jessie replied, "And your argument makes a lot of sense." Dan looked at Professor Lamb. "Sir, you are the only one present who is not a member of PLEA, and we know thaf you outrank all of us in legal expertise. Could you share with us your observations?" The Professor rose slowly and looked at the group. "I appreciate your dilemma," he began. "The American People are not easy to please. On the one hand, they must see concrete action imediately, but that action must be workable. I'm afraid that Mr. Austin is

255

correct. Reforms which will take years to implement. are not going to satisfy the public. Jessie is right too. Those approaches must be implemented." "Won't Mah first proposal eliminate the need for moah?" "I'm afraid that I can't agree with your proposal to prohibit lawyers from holding public office, Mr. Austin. First, such an amendment would instantly remove half of our present office holders in Washington and in every state in the union. Secondly--"We could write the amendment to take effect ovah a period of time. Oh! Ah'm sorry agin." "That's all right--good suggestion-- but secondly, a constitutional amendment must be approved by 2/3 of the state legislatures. Such an attempt would not only be impossible, given the degree of control of those legislatures by lawyers, but for reasons I don't want to go into now, could trigger counter measures that would be downright dangerous. Thirdly, and most importantly, we need the expertise of these legally trained individuals." "You sayin we drew a mean bronc." "Well put. You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. In my opinion, we are not facing a conscious conspiracy by the lawyers as a group---in some 256

ways, that might be simpler---no. I feel that this problem is almost a predictable outgrowth of the normal evolution of jurisprudence." "How s that?" "The origins of western jurisprudence are traceable back to Hammurabi and ancient Mesopotamia. The early Greeks and later the Romans added their modifications. Then the English added some more and brought their version to the American Colonies. We have continued this developmental process of the law. What could be more American than the entrepreneur? The person who is a product of his culture and environment and applies his unique skills to creating and filling needs.

That type inevitably was drawn to the legal profession, and found there a virtual entrepreneurial paradise. A multitude of problems crying for solution, rules to be manipulated, victims waiting to be fleeced, and best of all, the full power of government behind it all The only wonder is that we even have a country left to worry about. I think we owe that to the fact that there have always been lawyers who are the very opposite of the entrepreneurs. Lawyers who are trying to forge an entirely new concept in law---justice for the many. You see, those other contributors to western jurisprudence were always trying to give justice to a select few.

Unfortunately, in this country. these 'good' lawyers get shunted aside by the entrepanurial types who are busy creating this God-awful game that provides justice for none. And, the saddest thing is that most of them have only recently joined the profession and suffer from the naivet of being unable to comprehend anything different." Jessie got the Professors attention. "I've been thinking about the statement you made concerning the impossibility of passing a constitutional amendment through our lawyer dominated legislatures." "Yes, my dear." "We also know that no significant reform laws will be able to survive that gauntlet." "Yes." "Doesn't that indicate that we must begin our attempt at reform in the only places the people still have control?" "Exactly," Dan said, "the states that have direct vote on constitutional amendments. The states with the initiative procedure." "You're absolutely right," the Professor agreed, "and now you have a starting place. I do hope, however, that the almost impossible task of finding a part of our government that is not effectively controlled by lawyers 258

has impressed you with the urgency of this task." "But, where do we go from here?" Jessie asked. "We've heard from the lawyers here, we've heard from the college professor, and all of the PLEA representatives have had their say," Dan pointed out, "but we haven't heard from the people!" Jessie's eyes lit up. "My mother," she said. "My mother has read more of the letters from the people than anyone here. My mother is one of the people. She and dad were destroyed by the very problems we are talking about." Dan opened the door and asked Sheila to come in. She gingerly stepped up in front of the group. "I know this is an imposition, Sheila," Dan began. "But we felt that you have had more contact with the people through their letters than any of us. Could you tell us your impressions of what it is that they want PLEA to do for them?" Sheila hesitated. Then she looked directly at the audience who waited expectantly. "They want justice. They want to get on with their lives. They don't expect miracles. They don't even expect to win every time. They just want a decision and they don't want to go broke waiting for it." Dan asked, "What help do they need?" 259

"This system might be O.K. for criminals and corporations. I don't know. but for average people it tears us apart. If we had some other system we could use---." "An alternative." Jessie said. "That's it. We leave the present system intact---don't change a thing---where it works best, utilize it, but give the people an alternative they can understand." "Brilliant!" shouted Professor Lamb. "With one fell swoop she has cut all the ground out from under the legal professions opposition to any kind of change."

260 XXII CHAPTER XXII

As the group continued their discussion, they warmed more and more to the idea of an alternate justice system. Lamb reiterated the fact that any legal reforms were going to meet the formidable opposition of the lawyers and by leaving the present system intact their opposition would be effectively muted. ''In addition he said excitedly, "the new system need not be token attempts at minor changes in the present procedures. We can actually give it our best shot by utilizing the latest available knohow." Mr. Austin then took the floor. "Ah've been mightily impressed by the thinkin Ah been witnessin heah today. Ah believe we have ouah direction. Ah'm just sorry that it's not possible to staht with mah great state of Texas. Howevah, it's obvious that we must begin with a state having the initiative procedure written into it's constitution. It's also cleah that the little lady's alternate legal system is the action that will catch the imagination of the people. Mah hope is that it does so well for the states that choose the 261 system that Texas won t be fah behind." "If everyone agrees with Mr. Austin s assessment," Dan said, "I think that we should appoint a committee to expedite the matter. It will be necessary to select our target states, to write a constitutional amendment. and to set up organizations to qualify the amendments." The rest of the meeting was spent selecting the committee. The Professor declined an appointment, saying, "From what I've seen here today, you people are perfectly capable of implementing your plan. If I can be of any service, however, I will be totally accessable. I'll always remember my participation in today's session." Jessie and Dan both accepted positions on the committee, and they decided to hold their first meeting the next day. After the meeting adjourned, Sheila called Dan aside. "I didn't want to interrupt your meeting, but we were just informed that lawsuits claiming fraudulent use of funds were filed against two of our PLEA affiliates. One in Seattle and one in North Carolina. Dan called Jessie and the Professor over and explained the situation. "I thought this would happen," Professor Lamb

262 said, "just as I recognized the tremendous response PLEA was getting from the peopie, so too did those senators on the judicial committee. They undoubtably informed the Courtroom Attorney's Association and Sarchet set in motion plans to tie up your group. How susceptible is your organization to fraud charges?" "We took every precaution from the beginning," Dan answered. "Including the retention of the accounting firm of Blatt and Jackson to oversee all of the money." "Excellent! I would have guessed that a professional of your caliber would do no less. The charges are obviously trumped up, they may slow down your collections for a while, but I doubt if they can sway the people now. You might try establishing that the charges have been faked and then publicize the attack. It could backfire on Sarchet." "I ll do that." Dan said.

"Good! Now I must return to Washington. You obviously have Sarchet and his cohorts upset. I don't think they are ready for any kind of coup just yet, but you never know." That night they took the professor to International Airport to catch the midnight rattler back to Washington. He took Jessie and Dan over to a deserted corner of the airport waiting room. "We have a

263 little time before I must board my plane," he said guardedly. "I must first thank you both profusely for your hospitality and for inviting me to participate in your exciting adventure." "Our pleasure." they both echoed. "I know you will treat the rest of what I say in the strictest cnfidence. When I first had to tell you about the conspiracy, I and several colleagues have unearthed I saw the scepticism appear on your faces." "We -"No, please. Believe me, I understand. You are not the first we have felt should be informed. It is almost impossible for any present day American to take the idea of internal overthrow seriously. But let me remind you the Roman Expire was so strong that they actually abolished war in the world for over 200 years."

"The Pax Romana." Dan said. "Exactly. Those Romans had an infinitely more secure position in the world than we have, but their empire disappeared completely." "We should guard against complacency" Dan agreed. The professor continued. "Well, I assume our leaders appraise the external threat to our country and take appropriate measures. That is what my colleagues and I are doing to the internal threat we perceive. What I am about to tell 264

you goes far beyond what I felt you should know earlier. As you heard, I opposed the idea of challenging the lawyers to the extent of restricting their right to hold public office." "You said that we need their expertise," Dan said. "and I thoroughly agree." "I meant that. But I also said that a challenge like that could trigger repercussions. At that time, I didn't want to explain further. However, I would like to fill you in more fully on the things we know. I told you earlier that we were keeping track of an organization that poses a threat to this country. That organization is made up of several super wealthy industrialists, several military people, three U.S. Senators, a powerful evangelist, and others. It seems that somewhere in the 1970's they became aware of the power being concentrated in the hands of the lawyers, so they quietly arranged to bring several powerful attorneys and judges into their group. John Sarchet was one of them." "Where does your information come from?" Jessie asked. "Mind you, this is a loosely knit group of powerful fanatics, each so covetous of power that so far no one has been able to gain absolute control. However,

265 they own a 5000 acre island off the coast of Georgia. It has it's own boat harbor and jet strip, and they hold their clandestine meetings there. It is a veritable fortress, but we have more than one infiltrator working on the island. They report to us on the comings and goings of the members. Ostensibly, the island belongs

to a hunting club." "What do they call themselves?" Dan asked.

"The hunting club is named 'Sportman's paradise , but the organization has no name as far as we know. One of my colleagues invented the anagram C.O.O, that stands for 'Conspiracy Of Overthrow". He then named them the COO Coup organization. They all laughed. "I object to that," the Professor continued, "because these people are no joke, believe me. After the great depression,their class watched with horror while a vast multitude of legislation generally favorable to the masses passed. They watched the total wealth of the richest 2% drop from 29% to 25%. By the 1960's they had mounted their counter-attack and now the swing of the wealth of the country is the other direction. At the present time the richest 2% of all American families control 35% of the country's riches. I don't know what is going to happen now that the direction they favor is

266

being chalenged by your successes. I am sure they will fight any reforms you present, but what worries me is that they could feel threatened enough to make their move toward absolute control at any time." "Flight 719 for Washington D.C. departing gate 32--last call." "I must go now," the Professor said, "Goodbye." "If there is anything we can do," Dan said. "No, I'll handle this end. You keep up the good work. Let me leave you with one more word of urgency. The COO Coup's recognize the threat that the initiative and constitutional ammendment procedores present to their schemes. They are already hard at work attempting to get them abolished." "Goodbye sir. We'll remember. The next day, the new committee selected Dan as it's chairman. He immediately appointed a sub-committee to check the constitutional ammendment and initiative procedures for all 50 states and report back. Next, he opened the discussion on the type of alternate legal system they would promote. As he wrote the suggestions on a portable blackboard up front, a picture gradually emerged as to what such a system would look like. They

all agreed that it should be a simple system that all the people could understand, and since the lawyers would still retain their system intact, there should be no practicing attorneys in the new system. They also 267 agreed that it should begin with some variation of the present successful Small Claims Court. "If we look at the statistics we gleened from the people's letters," Jessie said, "we get an idea of what they want." "Right," Dan said, "and the two most mentioned problems with the present system were expense and delay." It only took the group about an hour to settle on the goals of any new system, and then Dan said, "Now for the hard part. Let's put together an operation that will acheive those goals." They worked all of the rest of the day, with Dan writing and erasing and correcting. Along about 10:00 P.M. they adjourned, but agreed to continue the following morning. Hundreds of ideas were suggested pursued and discarded before the rough simple alternative system emerged. The blackboard looked like this:

I. Present system remains unchanged a) Criminal Courts---unchanged b) Civil Courts---unchanged

268 c) Small Claims court---Incorporated into new system II. New System

a) Purely voluntary b) Litigants can go directly to old system c) Litigants go to new system if either

one chooses to and puts up the cost d) Cost covers an assigned paralegal expert to assist each party e) Cost covers judge and two jurors f) Loser may appeal to old system, but must bear all costs of winner until decision---then loser pays everything a g) If no clear cut loser---then each shares percentage cost of any appeal determined by Judge and Jurors h) New system can utilize any vacant government buildings, share any empty courtrooms, or rent decision rooms until people decide which courts they will 269 utilize i) Judge and two jurors can send any case on to old court system at any time j) All decisions must be rendered within 90 days k) Arbitration possible at any time 1) Lawyers not allowed m) Litigants, not taxpayers,bear all costs "That s the easy part." Dan said. "Now we have to draw up a plan for implementing those goals, and then let our constitutional experts write it all out as an acceptable initiative for the ballots of the states with the initiative procedure." "Well," Jessie said, "we have our starting point, the Small Claims Court System." More days passed and the blackboard was filled and erased many times. However, before the week was over they could call in the constitutional experts to write

their new initiative proposal for the constitution of the states selected as target states. "I like every part of this Alternate Court System," Henry Falk, the chairman of the new amendment

270 writing committee. said. "It s about time the people got a method for settling their disputes that everyone can understand. Now the trick will be to write an understandable initiative for the ballot that guarantees the results without ovewhelming the voters with details and at the same time making certain that our foes don't decimate the proposal." Dan then charged the comittee members with the task of running every possible civil legal case they had ever experienced through the newly written alternative system outline. They also tried many of the cases the people had sent to them. In every instance they reported that the new approach worked. It was usually very obvious at the outset of any lawsuit which ones should be sent directly to the old system. The amazing thing was the number of cases that were compatible with the new alernate system. The comittee felt that more than 80% of all the cases sent in by the public would have been adjudicated in 90 days or less under the new system. They had chosen this outline from the multitude of reform alternates proposed precisely because of it's simplicity. They knew that most lawyers and all of the professional lawyer groups were going to oppose whatever PLEA proposed for a constitutional amendment. This very simple alternate promised an uncomplicated, 271

workable, but most importantly, an easily understood system. In the end, it was decided that the more complicated the alternate, the more vulnerable it would be to attack by the well financed lawyer lobbies. If the new system could prove itself workable in even one state,the pressure for reform in all 50 states could be irrepressible.In that case, it would be impossible for the legal groups, or any groups to deny the movement. At that time, it was hoped, some of the more complicated reform procedures could be introduced into existing legal practice.The system now in use,the entire committee agreed, could not possibly have been produced by anyone of sound mind. If it didn't already exist, there is no way it could be invented. The greatest achievement of the alternate may be to trigger reappraisal of the old ways that had developed so

haphazardly over the years. Probably most of that old system could and should be discarded. Certainly the interminable delays that judges and lawyers were so fond of introducing served only the lawyers themselves and possibly their less honest clients, A famous old jurist once said that if access to court decisions were made too easy, then the people would over burden the system. However, the opposite had occurred, the access to court decisions was almost impossibly difficult, but the 272

system was overburdened anyway. Not only were thousands being denied their day in court. through excessive delay and expense, but those who suffered through the long process usually found themselves testifying about circumstances that happened several years previous. To that end, the committee unanimously recommended that additional groups be established under the auspices of PLEA to explore long term solutions to the legal mess. It was felt that any success by the alternate system would undoubtedly trigger reforms in the old system, and it was incumbent upon PLEA to be ready to help with those reforms.

273 XXIII CHAPTER XXIII

The next morning as Dan drove over to his office at PLEA he had an uneasy feeling. It wasn't a premonition of disaster or anything like that, but a feeling of caution swept over him. Everything had been going so well ever since they met Professor Lamb in Washington. During the night a thick fog had swept in off the Pacific and made driving difficult. "Maybe that's all there is to it," he thought. However, that wasn't all there was to it. Sheila bounced to her feet as she saw him come through the door and followed him into his office. "The Courtroom Attorneys Association has struck again," she said. "Three more lawsuits, and all filed against PLEA chapters in California. It's almost as if they suspect our plans to target this state." "I'm sure that's possible," Dan replied. "We have a lot of people in this organization and we do not try

to keep anything secret. Ask Simon Pardee if he could drop by to see me. I think that he would be the best to handle the Courtroom Attorneys Association."

274 "Right," Sheila agreed. "And here s the latest financial report from Blatt and Jackson." She laid it on his desk. "Thanks Sheila. How are our various task forces functioning?" "Well the overall coordinating council is always complaining that they can't get the organizations from various states to concentrate on any one problem at the same time." She joked. "That's fine," he laughed. "We should be striving to follow the lead of the people, and I'm sure that the people in the various parts of this country face many different problems. " "The new Constitutional Ammendment group is off and running in California. They already have functioning committees on volunteer recruitment, advertising, donation solicitation, education, speakers bureau, and legal rebuttal." "That's great! However, Henry Falk's committee is still struggling to turn our outline of the Alternate Legal System into an actual state constitutional amendment, and Ben Burnsides target state selection committee is still studying various state constitutions. I feel that California will be one of the states chosen and time is very important if we are going to accomplish 275 something significant before the peop1e s patience wears thin. The only committee that isn't under the gun yet is the long term legal reform group." "You may be right, but they don't seem to see it that way. Several are back in the conference room right now readying an agenda to be sent out to all 50 states." Later that same morning, Simon Pardee, with a frown on his tired old face, entered Dan s office. "Dan," he said, "we may be facing some trouble from these lawsuits the Courtroom Attorneys Association are filing." "Yes, that's why I asked you to come right over."

"Come right over, hell. I've had six lawyers in my comittee working on this problem ever since they filed their first suit charging that Seattle PLEA organization with mususe of funds. We knew that they would expand their attacks on us just as soon as they found out where we were heading." Dan said. "I knew you were the right man to head our lawyer's comittee. What have you legal wizards figured out?" "Well, as you know, we had so many attorneys, both practicing and retired, offer to help PLEA that I had my choice of the best legal minds around. Many of us had struggled for years to build viable practices and when 276

we finally paused and took stock of our profession. we were appalled. But one thing we do know is the workings of the legal mind. Those professionals at the Courtroom Attorney. Association so far have performed the precise knee-jerk respponses that we all predicted." "Like what?" Dan sasked. "Of course they dug up patsys to file suits against those PLEA groups in Washington and North Carolina. However, they didn't anticipate encountering Blatt and Jackson's accounting efficiency. Now, they figure their tried and true method of intimidating their enemies by nuisance law suits will work. They are sure that no organization can afford the expense of fighting multiple lawsuits." "That doesn't apply to us does it?" "Hell no." Pardee said."I ve got so many retired lawyers available, we're even looking at the possibility of reversing their own tactic and using it on them. Some of my men are pushing to countersue all of the 'patsy's' that they use to file their suits." Dan said."Don't do that. We don't want more people to get hurt." "I haven't ruled it out yet. but I think you're probably right. Don't underestimate the damage the Courtroom Attorneys can do to us. Remember, the judges 277

make all the decisions and they have most of them in their hip pocket." Pardee said "What do you intend to do?" Dan asked. "I think that it may take a while, but we may be able to convince them to compromise. They are not used to seeing anyone who is able to stand up to their dominance, let alone turn some of their own dirty tactics against them." "Compromise?" "Like I said, it might take them a little while to figure out that we can match them lawyer for lawyer and lawsuit for lawsuit, But when they realize that their ace in the hole is owning most of the Judgeships, we are going to have to convince them that we have the power of the people on our side," "Professor Lamb said that our best weapon was the power of the people." "And he was right too. I only hope that the people haven't waited too long, It's possible that the power interests and the lawyers have consolidated so many of their gains that even with the backing of the people we won't be able to save this democracy. They might be able to utilize delays and injunctions to tie up so much of our money that we cannot conduct an effective constitutional ammendment campaign,"They also have their own campaign to destroy the people's right to ammend the constitution and vote on initiatives. 278

"With all of the PLEA chapters all over the country," Dan said, "it would necessitate hundreds of lawsuits. That would be tantamount to a declaration of war by the Courtroom Attorneys on the people." "That's our ace in the hole," Pardee ended triumphantly. "But we are going to have to convince them that they can get hurt more that way than by allowing some reform to take place." Feeling that Pardee was doing everything possible to thwart the attacks of the Courtroom Attorneys, Dan turned his attention to the main task at hand. It was now October 14, and he knew that time was growing short for completing the initiative procedure in any of the 50 states, so he asked Sheila to get chairman Burnside of the Initiative Committee on the phone. "Hi Ben." he said when Burnside came on the line, "Are you guys ready to recommend which states we are going to target?"

"Hi Dan, glad to hear from you. Yes, we've pretty well narrowed the field down to two states. As you know, we tried to take into consideration the time factor, the states that have the initiative procedure in their constitution, the origin of our letter writers, volunteers available, and even the weather. In California it's going to be necessary to gather 894,000 279 signatures. "Well, I hope that means California is one of our target states, because we have a very active group out here making preparations right now." "Hell yes, Californians have to be in the fore front of every movement--good or bad. You know that we had more letters from there than any other state. Besides their weather is perfect, the population concentrated, and we have unlimited volunteers. Fads tend to move from West to East." "I hope you're not relegating us to fad pushers. What's your other recommendation?" Dan laughed. "Colorado, a very progressive state. They wrote a very effective initiative procedure into their constitution which they adopted in 1876. California didn't even have an initiative until 1911. Also, their population is concentrated in a few areas where the weather is good and our PLEA organizations there are very strong." After his conversation with Burnside, Dan walked down the hall to the room where a half dozen of their finest lawyer volunteers were teamed up with several laymen trying to draft a proposition that could be submitted to the voters. When he entered the room, the chairman was on his feet wagging his finger in the face

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of a pert redhead. "If we can't have lawyers as judges, how in the hell are we going to get judgments based on sound legal principals?" "You don't have to raise your voice," she replied. "We did agree that the Alternate System would have no practicing attorneys. "That meant--no practicing attorneys representing

clients--Oh, hi Dan. You came at an opportune time. What was your interpretation of the no practicing attorney goal?" He asked Dan. "Well," Dan said thoughtfully, "my idea would be that these are the very questions that your committee was set up to resolve. Personally, I feel that we need the expertise of legally trained individuals at the judge level. If I had a vote in your committee, I would vote to restrict lawyers only from client representation." "At least, a non lawyer governing board should have complete say as to the qualifications of all judges," the redhead shot back. "Excellent, I think you have just given us the compromise that will resolve this impasse. We don't want lawyers in general to feel we are trying to punish them, we just want them to confine their little games 281

to the old system. We certainly want their legal expertise in the Alternate System. but on a strictly controlled basis." "Sorry for the interruption," Dan said. "I dropped by to see first hand the progress you were making on the amendment." "You arrived at a good time, then. If a non lawyer governing board and no restrictions of judges meets with the comittees approval--" they all nodded affirmative--"then I believe we have resolved our last major obstacle to the completion of the amendment. Mind now, this amendment is designed as a model. Each state that presents this to its voters will probably want to make some changes." The chairman handed Dan a barely ledgeable piece of paper. It was filled with scratches and erasures, but he was able to read---THE ALTERNATE LEGAL SYSTEM AMMENDMENT Section 1. An Alternate Court system shall be established to adjudicate civil legal actions. Section 2. A Governing Board composed of three

administrators will be elected by the voters of this state every two years. 282 The Board qualifications shall be the same as those of the State Assembly with the additional qualification that no Board member shall belong to any State Bar Association. EAch shall receive remuneration in the amount of 2/3 of the governors salary and shall be governed by the constitutional terms of elective offices. Section 3. The Governing Board shall be responsible for setting up and administering a court system with the following features. a) All potential litigants may take any dispute ordinarily handled by the present civil court system to the Alternate Court for adjudication or referral. b) Either party in a dispute may take the dispute to the new court by paying a fee to be determined by the Governing Board. c) A trained paralegal will be 283 made available to each litigant. d) Self help legal textbooks will be made available to each litigant. e) A judge and two jurors will decide the degree of responsibility of each litigant and levy fines and costs.

f) Either litigant may appeal to the present civil court system. All subsequent legal expenses of both parties will be paid in the same proportion as each litigants determined responsibility. g) Judge and two jurors can refer case to present civil court system at any time. h) Each litigant must present his own case to the judge and 2 jurors. Lawyers will not be allowed in court. i) Decisions must be rendered within 90 days of filing. j) The Governing Board may draw moneys from the general tax fund not to exceed $10,000,000 to pay for the startup fees of 284 the new court system. Future fees are to be levied on the litigants that will cover the cost of operating the new court system. and repay all borrowed funds. "Where did the $10.000,000. figure come from," Dan asked. "Remember, this is only a model amendment," Falk answered. "Each state will determine their own necessary startup funds." "I don't see anything wrong with what you have so far " Dan said. "What do you mean--so far? That's the entire document." "But, I don't see anything about Small Claims Court." "The comittee discussed spelling out the procedure for implementing the ammendment's directives, but rejected that approach. If the elected Governing Board is able to achieve all those goals by some other approach--more power to them. We know the Small Claims

Court functions well, so we decided to leave it be. Besides, our opponents would jump at the opportunity of 285 attacking us for abolishing Small Claims Court." Dan said,"Maybe you're right. The process leading up to the initiative vote is bound to stir up endless discussion. The Board should be free to instigate the procedure. it sees as best at the time." "That was the conclusion the committee reached. However, it does put PLEA into the position of proving that its own system is best." "Well, I still believe it is, but if there are any better suggestions out there--let's find them." Turning to another subject," Dan said. "I heartily agree with the qualifications of the governing board, but how are they going to be elected?" "That was my point exactly," the little redhead was on her feet again. "Waiting for the next general election would delay us for another 2 years." "Well we discarded the idea of a special statewide election as too costly," The chairman explained. "But we are exploring the possibility of writing another initiative for this election that would elect the board members immediately." "We should simply name our own three board members right in the initiative, " she almost shouted. "The California Constitution prohibits the naming of any individuals in the document." Dan looked at her with a smile. 286 "I don t think it would be wise to force our own people into these sensitive positions. We are offering this plan to the people as an alternative that will give back to them a degree of control over their courts. We don't want even the slightest hint that they are simply trading one form of domination for another." "Then how do we expedite the whole plan? The people want action now." She asked. A deep voice from the other side of the table said, "We have spent more time on this problem than any other. I still contend that the governor is the elected official most susceptable to the vote of the people. If this initiative gave him the power to appoint three non-lawyers to administer the new system, he wouldn't

dare thwart the will of the people." "The governor's a lawyer himself," the redhead snapped. "And the pressures the lawyers associations would put on him would be tremendous. They could force him to appoint a Board that would make the new court a certain failure. What do ypu think, Dan? We've argued these same points so long---maybe a fresh perspective will help us." "The more I hear from each of the group PLEA has working on the various aspects of this legal problem, 287

the more urgency I feel about our work. Talk about the good sense of the common people---they seem to have become aware of the loss of control of their own courts almost before we did. It seems that every direction we turn we encounter almost complete control by lawyers. However, lawyers are people too. None of this attempt at reform would be happening if it weren't for lawyers. But it's also true that they arrived where they are with the help of the people. If your amendment is passed by a majority of the voters, I think that any governor would try his best to make it work." "What about the pressures from the special interest groups?" "The people are the biggest special interest group. Remember, Professor Lamb pointed out that when the people mobilize behind something, their strength is awesome." "Thanks Dan," the chairman said. "You ve given us a lot to think about." "O.K., I'll leave you people to your deliberations." To the chairman he said, "Henry, tomorrow I'm getting all the committee chairmen together for a coordinating session--bring whatever you have." 288 Chapter xxiv The next day, Dan and the chairmen were all seated around the same table. "I called you together today, to make certain that we were on the same track and all aware of the time pressures we are under. Let's get that part out of the way first. I think that you all know Ben Burnside, head of the committee researching

state constitutions." "Thanks Dan. As you know my committee poured over the constitutions of all 50 states and the U.S.Constitution of course. They all have amendment procedures,but only 16 states have procedures that can be initiated and voted into law by the people of the state. Because of reasons too numerous to state here, the powers that be decided that our two target states would be California and Colorado." One of the other chairmen asked. "Just what is the difference between an initiative, constitutional amendment, referendum and a recall? I know that most of you here are lawyers, but us poor uneducated types tend to get confused. Could you quickly run down the 289 differences?" "Gladly. The initiative is the power of the electors to propose statutes and amendments to the constitution and vote on them." "Then an ammendment comes from an initiative?" "Not always. The legislature can also ammend, but only the people can use the initiative power. That's why we are so interested in that." "An amendment can come from the initiative power?" "That's right. If it starts with the people. Now, the referendum is the power of the people to approve or reject statutes." "We're not as interested in that, right?" "Right! Our Alternative Court System proposal will be by initiative. Let me quote from Article II Section 1 of the California Constitution. Quote "All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their protection, security, and benefit, and they have the right to alter or reform it when the public good may require." "I know you just said that the reasons for using California and Colorado for target states were too numerous to mention, but could you give us an idea of why those two states were chosen?"

290

"Our committee studied the constitution of all 50 states. Only 16 of the 50 have our form of initiative procedure available to the people. Two of those states have very stringent restrictions. So, of the 50 states only 15 have any chance of passing laws that lawyers would disapprove of." "How about the U.S. Constitution?" "Forget it, 2/3 of both houses of congress or 2/3 of the state legislatures can propose an amendment, but then 3/4 of the legislatures have to ratify it before it becomes law. I'm sure that if the founding fathers had ever foreseen that any single group would gain the degree of control over our country that the lawyers have, they would have placed more safeguards into the U.S. Constitution. Our only hope of reversing the constantly accelerating trend of the lawyers use of our laws to further their own selfish interests lies with the constitutional amendment procedure by initiative that those 15 states have. Even then, we will need the power of the people plus the help of those lawyers who recognize the danger." "I m sorry I asked." All at the table laughed. "No!, Im glad you asked, because it will help me convey the urgency of making our first efforts

291

successful. In fact, we chose Colorado and California because they are both well respected progressive states. Not that Arkansas, Arizona, Florida. Illinois, Massachusetts , Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma,,Oregon, and South Dakota, the other 15 with initiatives aren't, but each failed somewhere in the optimum criteria we had set. We felt that to have the best chance for passage of the Alternative System, the states selected had to fit the time frame we were operating under. For example, Massachusetts requires approval at two sucessively elected legislatures, we wanted our target states to have acceptable weather for signature gathering. We preferred states where the population was easy to get to---Colorado has 8O% of it's population concentrated just east of the Rocky Mountains, and we wanted states where PLEA had plenty of volunteers. As I said before, our list ot requirements was much longer, but I won't bore you with our committee's entire deliberations. If any of you want, I'll be glad to meet with you after the

meeting to answer questions." "Wait!" one of the chairmen said. "My state of Nevada has the initiative and the other qualifications you mentioned. Why wasn't it included?" "I'm sorry, my friend. Nevada's initiative would 292

be practically useless for our purposes. First, they require signatures totalling 10% of all the voters in their last general election. Then any proposed ammendment must pass both their assembly and senate and be signed by the governor. Each of the states I mentioned was rejected by our committee for some reason. Again, I would be happy to discuss these reasons with any interested parties after this meeting. We undoubtedly will follow up our campaigns in California and Colorado with efforts in these states and we will need all the help we can get at that time." "I for one, feel that we owe your committee a vote of thanks," Dan said. "Did you establish a time schedule for California and Colorado to meet their initiative criteria?" "Yes, I have that information right here. But before we leave the other 15 states, my committee wanted me to stress the importance of initiating action in those states that will get our proposition to their voters as soon as is practicable." The chairman said. "If everyone here agrees, I think we should have your committee send the necessary information to the PLEA headquarters in each of those states with your recommended time schedule." Dan said. "I ll get that off by the end of this week, and if

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any of you are interested in the specifics for any one of those states, I'll see you after the rneetinq. Now, as to Colorado first. The initiative wording should direct the Colorado General Assembly, which consists of the Senate and House, to establish the Alternative Court System. Article VI, Section 1 of their constitution

vests that right in the General Assembly." The 'amendment writing' committee chairman was writing furiously. Another of the chairman said, "Won't that give the General Assembly control of the Alternative Courts?" "Not if it is written correctly. Remember, we are talking about a constitutional initiative. The constitution is a higher authority than the General Assembly. In fact, Article V, SEction 2 of the Colorado State Constitution states, 'The first power hereby reserved by the people is the initiative That same section stipulates that we need to collect valid Colorado voter's signatures equal to 5% of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for the ofice of Secretary of State at the last general election." "How many is that?" "I'm not sure at this time. We have requested from the Colorado Secretary of State, and the California Secretary of State, all pertinent information about 294

their initiative procedures. We have heard from California. but not from Colorado as yet. We know from the Colorado constitution that any initiative must be filed with the Secretary of State's office at least 3 months before the general election. We know also that the initiative must be submitted to committees of the General Assembly and be presented at a public meeting. We even know that the initiative must begin with the words, 'Be it enacted by the people of the State of Colorado', but we must be certain that we have performed precisely as the law requires." "Did I hear you say that the initiative must be submitted to their General Assembly for approval?" "Not for approval! Only for recommendations and a public hearing. At this point, in Colorado, we can expect concerted attack. on our Alternative Court initiative. However, their conutitution states, quote: Neither the general Assembly nor it s committees or agencies shall have any power to require the ammendment, modification, or other alteration of the text--or establish deadlines for the submission of the original draft of the text of any proposed measure unquote. That means that if we have met all the requirements, there is nothing they can do to keep it off the ballot." "Does anyone here have any more questions about

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Colorado's initiative procedure?" Dan looked around the table. "We will soon have the report of the initiative writing committee, and if there are no questions at this point I guess we can go on to California----Ben you have something?" "Our time frame in California is a little more critical than Colorado's," Ben began. "Any initiative must qualify at least 131 days prior to the general election or special statewide election at which it is to be submitted to the voters. My committee felt that we would want the Alternative Court System to be voted on in a general election where the greatest number of people vote. Since general elections occur in November, we must complete our ballot qualifications sometime in April. That means that between now and April we need to collect 800,000 valid California voter's signatures." "Wait a minute," one of the chairman said. "When I worked on proposition 51 in 1986 we only needed 630,000 signatures." "Well, according to the California State Constitution, Article II Section 8b, it's 8% of the votes for all candidates for governor at the last gubernatorial election. For proposition 51 in June 1986, it was exactly 630,136. However, in the gubernatorial election in November of that year, 296

slightly over 7,000,000 Californians voted for candidates for governor. so the total signatures needed now is approximately 40,000 less. Since the governor in California is elected on non-presidential election years, the number of voters tends to fluctuate. At any rate, I don't think that we should take any chances. It's apparent to me that our signators are going to be challenged by our opponents. I wouldn't feel comfortable with anything less than 40% more than we need." Dan said. "I say amen to that. Will our initiative need to have a public hearing before it qualifies--like in Colorado?" "No! A properly worded initiative with the correct number of valid signatures is all that is required in

California. "Then," Dan said, "all that's necessary now, is to get those properly worded initiatives out to our people in Colorado and California. Thanks Ben, you and your comittee did a great job." He turned to a balding, bespectacled, harrassed looking man at the end of the table. "Henry, I'm dying to hear the outcome of your committee's debate on the format of our initiative. You all know Henry Falk, the chairman of our initiative writing committee." 297 "Please realize," Henry began, "I didn't have the facts from Colorado's Constitution that Ben just presented until now. However, I'll give you my comittee's final draft, dictate the change Ben's input requires and then answer your questions." The chairman then passed around copies of the initiative. It looked like this: ALTERNATIVE LEGAL SYSTEM INITIATIVE A court system shall be established to adjudicate civil legal actions between parties when either party chooses to utilize said courts rules and regulations. Section 2. A Governing Board composed of three administrators will be appointed by the governor of this state every two years. The first Board to be appointed within 30 days of the passage of the initiative. The board qualifications shall be the same as those of the 298 State Assembly with the additional qualification that no Board member shall be nor ever have been. a member of any Bar Association. Each shall receive remuneration in the amount of 2/3 of the governor s salary and shall be governed by the constitutional

terms of elective offices. Section 3. The Governing Board shall be responsible for setting up and administering a court system with the following features. a) All potential litigants inay take any dispute ordinarily handled by the present civil court system to the Alternative Court System for adjudicationor referral. Each litigant to pay 1/2 of the use 299 fee determined by the Governing Board. b) Either party may take the dispute to the new court by paying the entire use fee determined by the Governing Board. c) A trained paralegal will be assigned to advise each litigant. d) Self help legal textbooks will be made available to each litigant. e) A judge and two jurors will decide the degree of responsibility of each litigant and levy fines and costs. f) Either litigant may appeal to the present civil court system. All legal expenses of both parties will continue to be paid by the litigants in 300 the same proportion as each litigants determined

responsibility. 9) The Judge and two jurors can refer a case to present civil court system at any time. h) Each litigant must present his own case to the judge and two jurors. Lawyers will not be allowed in court. i) Decisions must be rendered within 90 days of filing. j) The Governing Board may draw moneys from the general tax fund not to exceed $l0,000,000 to pay for the startup of the new court system. Future fees are to be levied on the litigants that will cover the cost of operating the new court system. 301

and repay all borrowed funds.

Henry resumed. "The simplest change we will have to make is the wording at the beginning of Colorado's initiative. Please write this at the top of your copy: 'Be it enacted by the people of the state of Colorado After everyone had written the added words to his copy, Dan said, "1 think I detect a major change in section 2. Didn't your original draft have the voters elect the Governing Board?" "Yes Dan. And we worked far into last night before we finally settled on 'appointment by the governor'. Without going over all of our discussion--which became quite heated at times, I'll try to justify our thinking." "Please do," one of the chairman said testily. "Aren't the governors of both these states lawyers?" "Yes they are. And as governors they are the officer in each state most directly responsible to the people."

"I'll buy that, but lawyers just the same. We must look beyond mere passage of these initiatives. Dan mentioned the urgency of making our first new courts function effectively. Can you imagine the pressure the governors will get from the lawyer's associations the 302

day after the voters pass these initiatives?" "What do you think kept us debating till midnight last night?" Henry said. Dan said laughing. "Let's let Henry summarize their thinking instead of repeating it all." "O.K., I'm sorry." The questioner said. "Well, as I said, the governors of both states face election every four years. We placed in the initiative, qualifications that spell out in no uncertain terms that only non-lawyer citizens are to be appointed to the Governing Board. We felt that if we can collect the signatures, get the initiative on the ballot, and the voters overwhelmingly pass them, no politician in his right mind would try to defeat their purpose. In addition, looking at the negative aspects of elections, we knew our initiative would be illegal if we named individuals as candidates. Since the election would be over when the initiative was passed, we would have to specify a special election or wait for the next general election to elect the Governing Board. That would not only be expensive but time consuming." "Why couldn't we have the governors appoint the first Board and then elect from there on? I'm sorry, were you finished?" "Not quite, but let me answer your question. In 303 the interest of giving the people something simple they can understand, and the fact that, in California, they already have recall available to remove the governor--.'' "What about recall of the Board?" "Colorado doesn't have recall and in California you can only recall elected officials. That would make the addition of recall very complicating to our initiatives." "Remember," Dan said, "this committee was charged with creating a model initiative to be used by any

state. Undoubtedly, when we send this copy to each state, they will make changes appropo to their own constitution. Just like Henry dictated for Colorado." "I still don't like the governor's heavy hand in there, He could appoint a Board that would guarantee failure. We can't afford that." "The Board is only the governing body, and they are charged with setting up and administering the system specified in the initiative. Those ten directives in section 3 make our system pretty fool-proof. I'll bet that even with the Courtroom Attorney's own people in the three Board positions that our new courts would function properly." "I'm not sure I agree with you, but you do have a point. The Board members will appoint people whose iob 304

will be to carry out the directives. They in turn will hire judges, jurors, and other personnel. The influence of the Governing Board will be limited. but I still think they are extremely important." "One last point I would like to make," Henry said. "is the fact that a California governor was strongly opposed to a lottery, but when the electors voted the initiative for a lottery, he appointed directors and the lottery functions." "O.K. Henry, thank you," Dan said. "I'm going to cut this discussion short because I think that we are merely rehashing the work of Henry's committee. If I don't hear from any of you by tomorrow, I'm sending this initiative off the way Henry has finalized it. Now let's hear from you other chairmen." "Not so fast," a small voice from the back was on it's feet, "Didn't our original plan incorporate the present Small Claims Courts into the new system?" "Where have you been? That was one of the first revisions. It was felt that in the interest of simplicity and because Small Claims was operating so well that we should not include them. We really must get on with the rest of the reports." 305 XXV CHAPTER XXV

The other chairmen it was after dark before in the front door of the first easy chair he came

gave their reports and as usual Dan headed for home. He came apartment and flopped into the to.

Jessie came in and kissed him. "I m serving hors d'oeuvres on the patio. Come and have a glass of wine with me. I don't get to see much of you anymore. How did your meetings go?" Dan told her how he had to cut the chairmen short because he felt they were getting nowhere on Henry's initiative. "We had charged the committee with drawing up an initiative, they did exhaustive research and long debating and then we sit there and second guess everyth;ng they concluded." "I think you are overly tired, dear." Jessie said. "At this another." of the system. guarantee that responsibility point, its six of one and half dozen of He couldn't stop. "We must trust some We can't reform everything. There is no just because someone is given a that he is going to discharge it 306 properly. I sometimes feel---" "Here darling, have some wine." She handed him a glass of French Colombard. "It's time to relax now. "I m sorry. I guess I have let all of this get the better of me. You know, you are right, I am tired." He said with a sigh. "You just sit there and drink your wine. I'll go put the finishing touches on the stir fry you like so well." After dinner, they took a walk along the beach. "I feel so much better now," Dan said. "I had to get you calmed down and off of PLEA's problems, because we need to talk about some problems of our own. I'm sorry to have to even mention personal troubles when your days are spent trying to keep from being buried by PLEA's troubles." "You do such a good job of handling everything," he said. "I have neglected my responsibilities." "I had my choice, I could have gotten as absorbed in PLEA's goals as you have---or I could try to take care of our affairs and give you more time to accomplish something. I happen to believe in what you are doing and whatever I do to help you, also helps PLEA."

"I can't tell you how much that means to me. I sometimes feel that I am inadequate. There is so much 307

to do." "I know." They walked in silence for a ways watching the waves crash against the sand. The little western sanderlings running up and down the beach following each wave out and then darting back just before the next wave came in. Their tiny legs were just a blur and they appeared to float a couple of inches above the sand. A seagull screamed at them and then flew a few yards up the beach. Finally Dan said. "We had such plans when we got married. We were going to back pack through the Rockies and the Sierras---we wanted to get a boat and you were going to teach me to water ski and I was going to take you back to Eldora and teach you snow skiing." She turned and smiled. "There will be time for all of that after the elections are over." "After the elections are over, the work will really begin. We will need to make sure that the people'. mandate is carried our---we will need to target the other states and "There are others in the organization that are itching to help. After the elections in California and Colorado, there will be momentum that will build. You must plan to disengage." 308 "You re probably right. What was this horrendous news you've been preparing me for all evening?" She smiled again. "Well I'm glad you didn't include yachts and around the world voyages in those grand plans we had when we were married, because we are probably two of the poorest lawyers in the United States. We own your car, my car, a tiny portion of mom's condo, and the furniture back in the apartment---and that's all." "Not very much to show for two college trained prpfessionals at the height of their productive years. Actually, I place the blame on you, Jessie. It's the woman's responsibility to goad her lazy good-for-nothing

spouse to get out and better himself." "Get serious, " she said. "Both of the cars are on their last miles and the rent on our beach apartment has skyrocketed to the point where we will not be able to meet it after another couple of months." "That bad, huh?" "I'm afraid so. Most of my savings went to pay dad's hospital bill, and when you turned your textbook income over to PLEA, you left us trying to survive on the money you draw as director, and the few cases I'm handling. "I felt I had to give PLEA the book revenues. 309 After all I was asking some of best friends for much larger donations than that." "I understand. dear. I wouldn t change a thing that s happened. It's just that we are at decision time. There's no use waiting until we are completely broke before deciding how to handle this." "You're so right. What do you suggest?" "I think we should give up the apartment immediately and find something cheaper. The landlord is making noises about boosting the rent from astronomical to absolutely impossible." "But you've always loved the beach." "I know, and someday I'd like to come back. But for now, I think living here is a waste. Besides that's just my first suggestion---there's more." "You want me to go to work and earn an honest living." Dan said. "Sort of---I want you to draw a decent salary commensurate with your responsibilities. PLEA barely pays you more than my mother is getting." "You used a poor example there. I'm not sure my responsibilities and accomplishments are even as good as your-mothers." "Regardless, we need more income. Simon Pardee's office is almost a subsidiary of PLEA. He and I both 310

spend more of our time on your business than we do with our clients. If it weren't for Lila, his secretary, I'm afraid we might lose all of our clients." "PLEA should pay you a salary for what you do." "No, I prefer to donate my time. Why are you so reluctant to pay yourself what you are worth?"Jessie said. "It s hard for me to take more out of the organization when I'm forced to ask so many for so much help." "If it hadn't been for you, there wouldn't be a PLEA." "Probably not by that name. But I can't take credit for stumbling into a phenomenon that was ready to happen anyway. If you want to give credit for the success of PLEA---thank all of the greedy lawyers, the spineless judges, the scheming insurance companies. They created the problem." "I, probably more than anyone, admire your humility and dedication, but I fail to understand how our bankruptcy is going to help." "You're right---as always. Tomorrow I'll speak to the board." Dan said. "And my other suggestion?" "You mean about moving---or do you have another one?" 311 "No, I think we can survive financially for the forseeable future if we can increase the income a little and move to a cheaper apartment." Jessie said. "I agree" Dan said. Jessie continued. "Mind you, that still does nothing to brighten up Our future. Some day I would like to plan for a home and a family." They were back at the apartment now and he unlocked the front door. He put his arms around her and they kissed long and passionately. "How about right now," he whispered in her ear. "Not here in the doorway. Besides, this discussion is not over. I knew that it was necessary to let you know what had to be done He was kissing her still.

"Dan stop." It was necessary to---." "You witch," he whispered tenderly, "you knew exactly what you were going to do before you even talked to me." She pulled away, "I've got to finish this---please understand that I'll do what we've decided---I want you to be able to continue past the elections without having to give any more thought to our personal problems." He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. "Just stop talking." 312 XXVI CHAPTER XXVI

The next few months were hectic for everyone. Jessie found a delightful little condo in Laguna Niguel. The owners had been transferred back to New York, but preferred to keep the condo. She was able to rent it for half of what the beach apartment cost, and after spending an entire weekend moving, was glad that they didn't own much. Sheila had been informed that the buyers of her business had finally declared Cahpter 7 bacnkruptcy. They had first filed under a Chapter 11 reorganization. However, they had scattered their assets so completely and had so many creditors that it was soon obvious to all concerned that reorganization was impossible. Dan was so terribly busy that one day Jessie got a call at her office from Professor Lamb in Washington. "I'm sorry to bother you, Jessie, "he said, "but I have been trying to reach Dan for several days and we seem to keep missing each other." "Yes," she said "he's trying tc coordinate the signature collection in California and Colorado. I haven't seen him for two days myself." 313

"I know what a hectic period this is for all of you out there1 and I wouldn't be calling except that I

have some information that I think you should know." "Please sir, there is no one in the world who would get, quicker attention than you. I know that Dan has tried to reach you--if he got your message." "Thank you my dear. It's possible that you might be able to handle this situation as well as your husband." "I hope so. What is it?" Jessie inquired.

"Well, I told you about the Committee Of Overthrow Coup. The loosely knit amalgamation of industrialists, senators, lawyers, and other ultra extremists." "Yes, I remember." "I still abhor the name, the C.O.O. Coup, but my colleagues have so completely adopted it, please forgive its usage. Anyway, the COO Coup group have increased their activity at their island hideaway in Georgia. At least three times, John Sarchet has flown in to confer with his fellow COO Coup's. We suspect that they are trying to decide whether your movement poses sufficient threat to their ultimate plans that they should make their big move immediately." "How can we help?" Jessie asked. "At this stage, we feel that they are wavering. 314

They have been satisfied for the past 10 years to conduct their conspiracy clandestinely. Their idea of enlisting the aid of certain lawyers to take over the lawyer s associations and thereby utilizing the growing power they represent has barely gotten off the ground. We think that they would prefer to work undercover for the next few years, but they are fearful that PLEA will have the effect of nullifying the additional power the lawyers are giving them. If we could convince them that preparations have been made to counter any move they might make, that might tip the balance away from a coup attempt. "Why don't you just tell them?" "I might be doing that right now if my phone is tapped. That would be fine. However, if you could somehow tell John Sarahet in the course of your normal dealings, I think that would carry more credability. He has to respect what you and your organization is accomplshing. Lamb said.

"What do I tell Sarchet?" "Naturally we don't want him to know all of our plans. Suffice it to say that we are aware of their organization and the majority of their members. That at the first sign of takeover we are prepared to expose their plot and those members. We do have other counter 315

measures, but I'm sure that their paranoidal tendencies will do the job. If this much disclosure does not tip the balance away from precipitous action, then I doubt that anything we can say will deter them." "Fine Professor. I ll get together with Simon Pardee. He has been handling the Courtroom Attorney's lawsuits against us." "Excellant, Simon's just the man for the job. Give my regards to your husband and your lovely mother. Goodbye and thanks." "Goodbye sir." Professor Lamb interupted."There is one more thing to tell your husband. The COO-Coups are declaring war on all initiative and constitutional ammendment procedures. They are allocating unlimited funds in an all out effort to discredit and destroy all citizen initiated law making." Simon Pardee just happened to be in his office, so Jessie walked next door and told him about the Professor's request. When she finished, Pardee sat thoughtfully for a moment. "This could fit my plans perfectly." He started slowly---then warmed to the subject. "We knew that we were going to have to contact Sarchet sooner or later to convince him that the usual intimidating practices of their organization were not going to work on us. I was going to wait until our propositions qualified for the ballot in California and Colorado. However, if we could knock Sarchet off his balance now, it might save the 316

challenges our propositions were certain to get from every possible angle." Pardee explained. Jessie asked."Do we have the strength to accomplish that?" "I don't know. There s no time like the present to find out.

If I arrange for a face to face meeting with Sarchet, would you accompany me?" "Why me?" "For one thing, Sarchet has shown an almost maniacal hatred for you and Dan. I want to confront him with that. The other reason I want you there is your incredible competency." "Thank you, I'll be glad to go with you." Pardee picked up his phone and dialed. "B.F.K. and S., good afternoon," the receptionist answered. "John Sarchet please. Simon Pardee calling." "I'm sorry, Mr. Pardee. Mr. Sarchet is not available. May I take a message?" "Tell Mr. Sarchet that Simon Pardee from PLEA wants to talk to him now. I'll wait." A few moments later, Sarchet came on the phone. "Simon old friend, what can I do for you?" "I would like to arranqe a meeting with you at your earliest convenience to discuss your organizations' differences with PLEA among other things."

317

"I can't see that we have anything to discuss. The Courtroom Attorneys Association is not involved with PLEA in any way. "Come off it Sarchet. Who do you think you are talking to? Just give me a date, a time, and a place. I'd like to bring Jessie Jordan with me also." "Oh, all right. Tomorrow at 10:00 A.M. at 0'Halorans." "We'll be there." Jessie had to cancel her morning appointments and drive to downtown Lou Angeles during rush hour but she wouldn't have missed this meeting for anything. She loved to watch old Simon in action. By the time they got parked and walked to the restaurant on the second level beneath the Richfield building, Sarchet was seated in a quiet corner sipping a cup of coffee. He got up when they approached his table

and said, "Simon so good to see you---and Jessie, how lovely you look." They both greeted him and sat down.' Still the super smooth exterior.' Jessie thought. "I'll get right to the point," Simon began, after they ordered coffee. "The Courtroom Attorneys Association is shopping around and finding PLEA members and others with real or imagined grievances against PLEA 318

and filing lawsuits on their behalf to tie up our finances." Sarchet looked shocked. "Our organization has done no such thing. I warn you, Simon, utterances like that can be very dangerous. I don't have to tell you what you are saying is libelous." The coffee came, and Sarchet changed expressions. 'Turns them off and on', Jessie thought. "Look my friend," he said benevolently, "I don't know how or why you got mixed up with this misguided group, but I assure you they are riding for a fall. I can understand Jessie's being hoodwinked by her husband---I'm sorry my dear, but someone has to tell you this for your own good." "My husband'---" "No, let me finish." Your husband, for reasons unknown to us, instigated his personal vendetta against attorneys. Maybe we have ignored his pathetic, slanderous, attacks too long. When he can convince upstanding lawyers like yourselves to betray their own profession, it may be time for us to take action. Mind you, we have done noihing to this PLEA organization as yet, but----." "Oh cut the bullshit." Pardee leaned across the table and looked directly into Sarchet's eyes. "We 319

didn't sit through 50 miles of smog and traffic to listen to your fairy tales. Listen for 2 minutes and you might learn something for a change." Jessie smiled at the new expression of self righteous indignation that covered Sarchet's face.

Pardee continued. "You and your organization are an open book to us. At this very moment I can call on over 100 of your Courtroom Attorney members who are disgusted with the leadership and direction that you' re taking. We know all of the tactics of character assassination and intimidation that you people use to control anyone who dares to cross you." The absolutely controlled expression. on Sarchet's face began to be replaced by sheer hatred. "I'm glad you're so familiar with our methods," he snarled, "because I think I'm going to enjoy using them all on you." "Oh shut up and listen. What are you going to do?---file another bunch of lawsuits against us?" Pardee laughed. "Let me point out that we can match you lawsuit for lawsuit and our lawyers are mostly retired---they don't need to earn money like your boys do. Then what about character assassination---many of our lawyers were, or still are, members of your organization, privy to your innermost secrets. I could 320

tell you a few things right here and now that I ll bet you would do anything to hide." "Is this blackmail?" "Sort of. What I'm trying to convince you of is the power of PLEA. When it finally sinks in to that thick skull of yours I think you are going to realize that you ve run into an opponent that can match you in every department. And, I think that you will be happy to reach a detente with us." Simon said. "What do you mean?" Sarchet sneered. "We don't mind you conducting a nice clean campaign against PLEA's propositions in California and Colorado. Actually, that should help. But if you employ any of your usual dirty tactics we'll fight you like you've never been fought before." "Are you through?" Sarchet was visibly shaken now. "Almost! We also want you to fly back to your island in Georgia and report all of this to your fellow conspirators. Then tell them that their conspiracy and their identities are known, not only by us, but by others. If we detect the slightest indication that your nefarious plot is nearing fruition we ll expose the

whole lot of you. Now, we must be going. Got a long drive you know." They left Sarchet sitting in stunned silence. 321 XXVII CHAPTER XXVII

Dan flew into Orange County airport later that same night. When Jessie picked him up, she asked if he would like to go someplace to eat. "If it s O.K. with you," he said, "I'd much rather go home and take a shower. As soon as we left Denver and the stewardesses sold all the drinks they could we had a cardboard meal." "What was it?" "Damned if I know. I haven't had a decent meal for so long, r don t think food even registers as it goes down." "Poor baby." She said. After Dan had his shower, they both sat down on the living room floor to relax with a glass of wine. "You're sure you don't want anything to eat? Jessie asked. "No thanks," he said sleepily. "Well, tell me about Colorado. are we going to collect enough signatures by the deadline?" "Are you kidding? We've already got enough. Now, 322 we re trying to break the record. We need enough to qualify even after Sarchet and his henchmen torpedo half of them." "I'm not sure you're going to have to worry about that," she said. "What do you mean? Why that impish little grin? What have you been up to?" Jessie told him the whole story. How the Professor had called from Washington asking for help. About Pardee's confrontation with Sarchet. After she

finished, Dan sat so quietly that she finally asked, Dan are you awake?" "I'm awake," he said. "Did you hear what I said?" "I heard. I'm trying to put it all in perspective. Here I start an organization to put honesty and integrity back in the legal profession and I find that my wife and my ablest cohort are out blackmiiling my opponents." "It had to be done. Sarchet is ready to ruin our entire operation. Simon and I didn't actually do anything to anyone. All we said was, "If you use any dirty tactics on us, we are prepared to retaliate in kind." "I guess you're right. Let's sleep on it." 323 The next morning, Dan was scheduled for an interview at a local T.V. station. Jessie got up early to fix him some breakfast. When he finished dressing, he came into the kitchen whistling. "I feel like a new man." he said. "I hope so. The one I picked up at the airport was certainly grouchy." "Well, when I thought back over your descriptions of Sarchet's multiple expressions, I had to laugh. But I still haven't resolved in my own mind whether we have the right to subvert our own ideals in order to achieve them." "You keep thinking about it," she said as she served up his eggs, "you're getting to be such a celebrity that you are going to have to leave much of the more menial tasks to us underlings. Fortunately, we are not so pure of heart as you." "I feel that I have been entrusted with a sacred cause by the people. I guess I'm too afraid of failure." "That's fine. If you can oversee our ideals and handle the celebrity roll, the rest of us can take care of Sarchet If it weren't an imperfect world. this legal mess would never have occurred. We're trying to reverse 50 years of unbridled greed and devious power 324 grabs. We may have to get our hands a little dirty.

Trust us more, you can't do it all. We won't sully the cause, but we won't lose either." Dan kissed her goodbye, and rushed out to his car. The local T.V. station that was doing the interview was close by, but there would be need for a makeup session. He would barely have enough time to get to the studio. It was a live interview and he hadn't had time to prepare anything, but that didn't bother him. At first he had hated this aspect of PLEA's operation and had tried to get others in the organization to make the speeches and appearances. However, he soon discovered that most places wanted the top man, and to his own surprise he was very good. The stage director was almost frantic when Dan finally was ready for his briefing "We only have a minute and a half before air time. This is a live telecast with a live audience. There won't be any retakes. I hope you came prepared because Mr. Jason asks tough questions, and he usually has the audience 100% behind him. Try not to get rattled. Stand here behind this curtain and when you are introduced walk out carefully---there's a step up to the interview platform---by the way, did you know that Allan Jason is a member of the Courtroom Attorneys Association?" 325

''No , I--- . "Just be careful and watch for loaded questions. I wish I had more time to help you but we're on---good luck." For the first time, Dan was aware of the deep melodious voice filtering through the curtain. "---this morning is none other than the president of that organization Dan Jordan." Dan moved through the curtain and blinked at the glaring lights. As he stepped toward a tall smiling bespectacled giant with outstretched hand, he was barely aware of applause coming from behind huge T.V. cameras. There were two easy chairs and the giant was leading him up on the platform and offering him one. The audience continued to applaud. Dan didn't know why they applauded, but was grateful for the opportunity to observe his surroundings. They were in a fairly small studio, surrounded on three sides by steeply rising bleachers that probably didn't accomodate more than forty people. However, all the possible seats were filled and the close proximity of the audience made it

seem like a big crowd. On the floor in front of the audience were three T.V. cameras and many lights, and in front of that was the raised platform on which he now sat. Jason raised his big hands. "Thank you, Thank 326 you." Then he turned to Dan, "I've heard your organization referred to as the 'People s Lawyer Execution Associations, is it communist?" Dan remembered to smile, 'this guy doesn't waste any time---I'm .glad the stage director gave me a little warning'. Some in the audience were snarling "Communist, Communist." "The letters PLEA. stand for---and have stood for ever since I founded the organization in 1976, Public Legal Education Association. And no---it is not a communist organization." Dan answered evenly. "What is your purpose in trying to get a proposition on the ballot that would destroy our civil court system?" Jason asked, thoroly enjoying himself. One of the large cameras panned the audience. They were still chanting, "Communist, Communist,"---and were shaking their fist in Dan's direction. He was flabbergasted, and as he looked around again thought, "I had no idea this sort of thing took place on local television. I figured it was just a normal interview session but it looks like I've stumbled into something different." "Well, are you going to answer the question?"Jason snarled. "I was taught that it wasn't polite to talk while others are talking. I'll wait." Dan answered, looking at the audience. 327 Some hissing and booing came from the audience. Jason smiled now and turned to the audience. "Please, give him a chance to talk." Dan waited until every last whisper subsided. "Civil Law, historically speaking, developed as"We re not here for a history lesson." Jason said. "Yeh, Yeh!" the audience shouted. "I m sorry," Dan said rising to leave, "I must

have the wrong studio. I was invited to do an interview." "No, No, don t leave---sit down." "If I'm allowed to answer the questions you ask me, I'II stay." "O.K., O.K., quiet guys while he answers." "As the country became more complicated, our civil law became more complicated. At first the citizens relied on their own responsibility and integrity to avoid disputes---a person's word was sacred. When it was necessary to go to the courts, each litigant presented his own case. As life became more complicated, lawyers played a more prominent role. However, somewhere along the line the lawyers got out of control. They made laws, interpreted the laws, and judged the citizens by those laws. People were effectively cut off from their courts. They became mere 328 spectators at their own trials---while judges and lawyers played some crazy expensive time consuming game in and out of the courtroom. Your question was "why is PLEA attempting to destroy the civil court system'? Far from it. If you ve read our proposition it makes not one change in the present civil court system---what it does is to create an alternate court system that encourages our citizens to handle their own disputes." Jason looked interested. "But aren't you merely trying tocapitalize on the popularity of T.V. shows like People's Court and Law & Order?" "No, our work dates back to 1972---long before law shows became popular on T.V. However there are lessons to be learned from those shows. We lawyers,----I understand that you are a member of the Courtroom Attorneys Association---right?" "Yes, I am." "The audience stared at Allan Jason in disbelief. "We lawyers," Dan continued, "have always told the people that law is too complicated for the untrained to understand---that only we lawyers can interpret intricacies of the legal system. However, these T.V. law shows and Small Claims Courts have shown the people that they can present their cases themselves and receive quick decisions without the legal mumbo-jumbo and constant delays inherent in our regular courts."

329 "The cases presented on these courts are penny ante," Jason sneered. "But it s a start toward improving the system." "0h, you want murder trials, child molestation, and custody cases to be decided on prime time T.V.?" "No, as a matter of fact our organization has been asked by many people to include the reform of criminal courts in our agenda, but we have refused because we----" "Because you can't fleece as many donations from convicted criminals as you can from the people you---" "Let him talk," some of the spectators yelled. With the obvious help from the audience, Dan continued. "We turned down those requests, not because we couldn't get enough money---in fact we returned their donations---we have worked for over 15 years getting the people's backing for civil law reform and we will not stop until we have accomplished that." Dan explained. Jason realized that the audience had gradually shifted allegiance away from him so he began asking his questions more civily. "What could any group do that would improve on present jurisprudence that took hundreds of years to develop?" "Do you mean in criminal law?" "Yes in criminal law." Jason was trying to steer

330

Dan into an area he was less prepared for. "As I said before. our organization is concentrating on civil reform, but I feel that many of the changes we are espousing could be utilized in criminal reform also." "Do you think that anyone arrested for drunk driving would have a chance of beating the system without a lawyer even if he were innocent?" "Probably if the average person were arrested for driving drunk he would be wise to seek counsel." "I'm glad you agree with the system on that

point." Jason smiled. "Oh, I don't agree with the system. The lawyers the judges have mishandled that problem as badly as any other." Dan said. "In what way?" "If you can believe that the highway patrol and the police departments of one small area can arrest 1500 people for drunk driving and in all of those arrests there was not one of those defendants who was actually drunk, and properly arrested, then you can say the system operated well in that locality." "Where do you get your statistics?" "An attorney in Florida, with the help of the judges decisions, managed to exhonerate every one of the 331 1500 accused drunk drivers that he defended. By the way, he made over $l.O00.000 defending them." "They must have all been innocent." "The anti drunk drivers organization. didn't think so. They claim that the attorney and the system is putting dangerous individuals who are badly in need of help back behind the wheel of 4000 pounds of lethal weapon. Several who had previous drunk driving convictions were set free and then were subsequently arrested for the same charge. At least one was arrested for killing a little girl." "The audience yelled, "No--No." Jason realized that he was losing control. "Let's get back to your crusade for civil reform." "Fine, I feel more qualified to discuss that." The audience sat quietly for a second, then a smattering of applause. Jason chose to conduct the remainder of the interview normally. Dan was able to expound upon the consequences of an alternative system. That possibly, the most advantageous result of the new system might be the reform of the old system. At the end of the interview, the host appeared somewhat confused. He thanked Dan profusely and invited him to come back to some future show. The audience cheered. On his way out of the studio,Dan passed a smiling make-up

man who mouthed, "Way to go." 332

As Dan left the studio, the stage director slapped him on the back. "If you can handle Allan Jason like you just did, you won't have trouble in any interview." He said admiringly.

333 XXVIII CHAPTER XXVIII

In both Colorado and California, the signatures of the registered voters were submitted to the Secretary of State's office, qualifying the two initiatives for the respective state ballots. Never before in either state had so many signatures been submitted for any tntiative. In addition, the challenges mounted to invalidate signatures was minimal. Professor Lamb told Jessie that the small number of challenges indicated that either Sarchet had gotten the message and called off his organization or the Courtroom Attorneys had realized that the number of signatures made disqualification of a sufficient number to make a difference, impossible. Jessie had kept in touch with the Professor by phone. she had called him immediately following the meeting she and Pardee had with Sarchet. In subsequent calls, he hinted that their meeting had produced positive results, but refrained from saying anything specific. The last time he called he said he would like to come to California and talk with her and Dan. She had to explain to him that she would be happy 334

to see him but that his chances of catching Dan were practically nil. Dan was becoming so popular on talk shows that he was scheduled for months in advance. He had moved from local T.V. and radio to nation wide magazines, radio, and T.V. interviews. Lamb said that he understood, but needed to meet with her and Simon Pardee. She took the Professor to Simon s office as soon as he arrived. After the amenities were over, they told him about the progress of the Alternative Court amendment. "That's splendid," he said. "I m so pleased that the campaigns are progressing so smoothly. Have you noticed much opposition from the Courtroom Attorneys or any unusual opposition from anyplace?" "No." Jessie answered. "0f course, this is our first campaign of this kind, but I haven't noticed anything I would call unusual---have you Simon?" "I'm a novice here myself,"Simon said."but I wouldn't characterize anything our opponents are doing as unusual. They've run some newspaper ads and a few T.V. spots. Of course, the elections are still more than a month away. Maybe our little confab with Sarchet did some good." "I'm sure it did," the Professor replied. "I hope Jessie conveyed my appreciation of the way you handled 335

Sarchet." "Yes, she did." Simon said, smiling. "What's your appraisal of the aftermath of that discussion?" "That's one of the reasons I made the trip from Washington. That and the opportunity to visit with some of my favorite people. I'm so sorry that Dan was unavailable." "Rest assured," Jessie promised, "If I ever see him again, I'll apprise him of evrything we discuss. He s so much in demand I rarely see him." "I understand, and I do hope that you are looking beyond the present campaigns Dan Jordan is the rare type of individual that this country needs badly. He's so good at it, I hope he considers politics." Lamb said. "I'll wager the thought has never crossed his mind," Pardee mused. "Then you must place it there---and you, my dear

must nurture it. Well, I've dispensed enough unsolicited advice for nov--let me get on with why I came. Your confrontation with Sarchet had profound effects on the COO Coups. Perhaps even, too much." "How do you mean?" They both asked in unison. "They've gone back underground. I guess you've noticed my contacts with you have become more subtle---less informative."

336 "Yes" I ve noticed." Pardee said. "That's because COO Coup is more dangerous underground. We had to inform you of their activities, but tried to keep secret from them that we were aware of their operation or of their membership. We took a calculated risk allowing you to confront Sarchet with those facts because of the tremendous importance of your project. Only through those shocking disclosures could we hope to head off--who knows what." "I'm sorry Professor, but you've asked the very question that's been going through my mind ever since I learned of the COO Coups. How could they be a threat to this great country with its huge armed forces and its---?" The professor interrupted. "Many ways I'm afraid, my dear. We have no way of knowing just how they will try to accomplish their ultimate goal of takeover, but let me guess at a possible scenario. I told you before that they have huge amounts of money and tremendous talent at their disposal, and that they have cultivated certain lawyers and their organizations because of the continuing power the lawyers are accumulating over the people and their institutions. In fact, they placed so much emphasis on the transfer of that power to themselves through unscrupulous lawyers, that my colleagues and I took the 337 unprecedented action of disclosing our surviellance operation. "Through our meeting with Sarchet?" "Right! Now continue with my scenario. We all know that our presidents---capable as they are---are nothing more than human beings, like ourselves. Each has his idiosyncracies and short comings. Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy s delusions of granduer;

Lyndon Johnson's obsession with power; Nixon's paranoia; Reagan's fixation on simplistic solutions, and of course, Clinton s sexual escapades---the COO Coups know that when their consolidation and infiltration of power is ready there will be a way to exploit the weaknesses of those at the top. Possibly to convince the leader that only he can save the country. Help him to subvert the 2 term limitation of the 22nd ammendment, then consolidate their power as he grows older in office and perhaps after several nullified presidential elections proclaim a moratorium on all elections." "Wow," Jessie exclaimed. "We need look no further back than Ronald Reagan's Iranian fiasco for our model. What if some future president with a like fixation on the communist menace surrounds himself with zealots of the same pursuasion. Suppose his top advisors are COO Coups. They are all 338

convinced that the communists are taking over in Central America and along with Cuba are cornering this country. The opposition party, they feel is infiltrated by more bad guy communists and communist dupes. This party shows signs of hood-winking the electorate into putting them into power. They're convinced that following the letter of the law is a sure fire road to communist takeover. "One thing they might do, is provoke a war with Cuba and invade Central America. Then, because of the extreme danger facing the country, they could convince the president that he must suspend the upcoming elections.They could count on Russia or China taking counter measures that would divert public opinion. The people would be faced with alternatives of fighting the proclamation suspending elections and thereby weakening our war efforts in the face of a foreign threat, or acquiescing and hoping the takeover could be reversed later on." "Makes you appreciate how fragile democracy is." Pardee added. "Remember, truth is stranger than fiction. COO Coups' ultimate plan may be more devious and unbelievable than we can imagine. We must remain in a constant state of preparation. Immediately following 339

your confrontation with Sarchet, they closed their entire operation in Georgia. Our informants on the COO Coup s island were fired along with everyone there. "Why did you allow us to blow your cover---so to speak?" "Because your program is so important. If you are successful in establushing a viable alternative to the present legal system, you will reverse the trend of the past half century toward erosion of the power of the people. The greatest benefit may be the realization by the vast majority of the legal profession that the people have had enough and that the lawyers usurption of power, regardless of how beneficial it might be to them personally, is a terrible threat to our form of government. If you can awaken them to the fact that this greedy orgiastic nightmare is harmful to all of us, I think there are sufficient decent people among them to reverse this horrible trend." "Then your message to us is to redouble our efforts to pass the Alternative Legal System." Jessie said. The professor shook his head."I could have told you that on the telephone. My message is actually threefold. you re right on the first part, but just as important,don't relax in your vigilance against COO Coup. They have gone underground, but they could be even more dangerous there. And third; their going 340 underground necessitates my counter group going underground also. From now on please be very discrete in sharing information with others and particularly careful in how you pass information on to me. My group increased its vulnerability in our attempt to head off COO Coup. It might take us years to regain our preparedness. However, I've saved my worst news for last, And I hesitate to bring it to you at such a critical juncture in your campaign, but the problem has been instituted by Dan himself." Jessie gasped. "No my dear, it is nothing he has done wrong. On the contrary,it results from his tremendous success in reaching the common people. The means he used--you all used-utilizing the perfectly legal methods that certain state constitutions made available to you,namely the initiative procedures, has worried many who feel threatened by the possibility of the people taking charge of their own government. Of course,the lawyers,the COO Coups,and the big contributors head the list. They are sparing no effort in attacking the ammendment procedures already in place, and the states considering adoption of those procedures. Make no mistake,Dan has unleashed probably the single most important battle for the preservation of

democracy. Please tell him--he has the forces that have always subverted the peoples control on the run, but the battle goes on. We need him to continue. 341 XXX CHAPTER XXX

On the way home, Jessie told Dan about a persistant caller from the governors office. "He tried to pump me about any future political plans you might have. I think he wants to make sure that you have no gubernatorial ambitions." "Who me? Are you kidding? I have no political aspirations, period." "I think that he wants something else also. He just took the opportunity to find out if your wife is privy to your political plans." "Well now you are---absolutely no plans." "You should know that Professor Lamb mentioned that he thought we should encourage you to enter politics. He said that you are the kind this country desperately needs." "The Professor said that?" "Yes, and you might get your chance---the man from governor's office is staying in town until he can get an appointment to see you." "I'll say," Sheila echoed, "he calls twice a day 347 to see if you're back." The next day, Jerry Wentworth. the governor s aide, was waiting when Dan got to the office. "Good morning, Dan." He said. "Congratulations on your stunning victory in Colorado." "Thanks," Dan said. "Come on in. What can I do for you?" "The governor asked me to come and see you." "What about?" Dan asked.

"About your plans for the future now that PLEA has accomplished its goals." "Accomplished its goals?" "Well, you targeted California and Colorado to initiate legal reform. Now that the voters of those two states have given you the go ahead, the governor felt that you might like to be in a position to implement that reform." The aide said. "What position?" "I m not authorized to make any specific offer---that's for the governor to do. However, I don't think that I would be out of line to tell you that the governor has great respect for what you have been able to accomplish. He prides himself on being responsive to the will of the people, and you have certainly uncovered the will of the people with respect to law reform. I'm 348

sure he has in mind an advisory position to help him establish a workable system." "I'm afraid that I'm not interested in any advisory position nor any governmental position at the moment." Dan said. "Don t be haughty. You have a lot to offer. You've developed a charisma and a style of your own. I'm certain that you and the governor could work out an arrangement that would benefit you both." "I am president of the Peoples Legal Education Association, and I intend to retain that position. Any governmental job. would compromise my effectiveness. However, I would be at the governors disposal to advise him on any of PLEA's goals. I would necessarily refuse any governmental title or any remuneration for that advice." The aide actually seemed relieved at Dan's response. "I'll convey your plans to the governor. I'm sure that he will accept your help on your terms. Please give him credit---as a lawyer himself, he is under tremendous pressure to stalemate the Alternative Legal System. But he honestly wishes to give the people what they want and he is soliciting the advice of all types of consumer oriented organizations. Your group as instigator of the whole idea could be of incalculable 349

help." "You can convey to the governor my groups readiness to help in any way we can to facilitate the start up of the Alternate System. However, the proposition as passed by the voters spells out the procedure for establishing and operating that." "Precisely. The first obligation the governor has is to appoint the governing board. He is asking for recommendations from all interested sources. Naturally, we would look with favor on PLEA's suggested appointees." "I understand." Dan said. "I'll meet with my colleagues imediately and forward to the governors office our recommendations. The intent of the writers of the proposition was similar to that of the framers of the U.S. Constitution when they placed the civil authority over that of the military. The proposition wirters felt that a governing board of the Alternate Legal System composed of average non-lawyer citizens would do the best job of assuring the people of a truly alternate system. A good governing board is essential." "Right. I'll so inform the governor. Thank you for your input." When Dan met with PLEA's directors to discuss their recommended appointees, they put at the top of 350 their list, Sheila. Later that eveninq, Dan asked Jessie if she thought that her mother would accept such an appointment if it came. "I don't know," Jessie answered. "I m certain she will say that she is not qualified." Dan went on. "Yes, I expect that. But your mother immediately comes to mind whenever any of us discusses the qualifications we want a person in the directors job to have. She is intelligent, extremely efficient, and she gets things done." "What are chances that the governor will appoint her?" "I have no idea. I have never talked to the governor, but his aide said that they would look favorably upon our recommendations and your mother topped our list." "Does she know?" Jessie asked.

"No. We felt that the list simply reflected our thinking. We didn't have time to interview prospective

appointees---the aide said that the governor wanted to take immediate action---they really seem to want to make this thing work."

The next day, Dan was talking to Jessie in his office when the door opened and a shocked, distinctly 351 pale faced Sheila stood in the doorway seemingly speechless . "Sheila, what is it?" he asked. "That was the governor---I tried to have him talk to you---he wants me to come to Sacramento to interview for the governing board of the Alternate Legal System." "Sheila, that's great." "Oh mom, congratulations," Jessie exclaimed. "This must be your doing. The two of you. The governor wouldn't know me. I can't leave PLEA. Do you want to get rid of me?" Dan explained how the board of directors at PLEA had forwarded a list of recommended appointees to the governor at his request. "You were the only unanimous selection on our list. Now, if only the governor has the good sense to appoint you." "Oh, he wouldn't, he couldn't," she protested. "I don't have a law degree. I--"Mom, you wouldn't be eligible if you had a law degree. Remember prop 72 states that the governing goard will be empowered to hire all the legal help they need. When do you go for your interview with the governor?" "I--I told him I would let him know. He said to take my time. I can't be on the governing board---I'm 352

just an average person---I--- " Dan broke in. An average person with exceptional common sense. Just what that position requires. Remember, the board is charged with setting up the system--renting space--hiring personnel--accounting for the funds--supervising people--those are the thing. you

have been doing for PLEA. You'll do a fine job. Think of how proud Mel would be. This is just the kind of thing that he wanted all of us to do for society. Call the governor and make an appointment for your interview. If he understands what the people want in prop 72, he will jump at the chance to appoint you." "If you all think I can do it." She said in a daze. She went to her phone and called the governor. Not only did the governor appoint Sheila to the board, but the other two appointees elected Sheila as president of the governing board. The other two members were both men. George Bagly was a former police officer and small businessman from Watts, and Bill Kantur was a teacher in San Francisco. They were each recommended by consumer organizations. Jessie and Dan selection. and they appointments also. take an average man were overjoyed at Sheila s were pleased with the other two "Harry Truman proved that you can with good common sense and run the 353 entire country." Dan said. "Hell, he proved the founding fathers were correct when they made civil authority paramount to the military. He even handled a recalcitrant general on the side. I think that your mother and this board are going to set up and operate Alternate Courts that will revolutionize the civil court system." All three appointees were indefatigable and they worked well together. The public was anxious to see results from prop 72, and several of the large cities had established waiting lists for cases awaiting the new court system. However, the board wisely opted for a county by county start up for the new courts. They also limited the jurisdiction of the first courts to $20,000 in monetary indemnity and since prop 72 did not alter the existing Small Claims Courts the people's effective range of cases that could be adjudicated quickly and reasonably without lawyers was 0 to $20,000. Each board member felt that the limits would be raised as soon as successful operation warranted. Colorado's proposition 17, that state's version of the Alternate Court System, was undergoing a somewhat different development. Their Civil Court system had not been quite so bogged down with backlogs as was California's. Their three member Board of 354 Directors---two women and a man---opted to not only start with higher monetary limits, but to accept cases with non monetary judgments right from the beginning.

Possibly the influence of the younger of the two female Board members was instrumental in setting this course. She had been recomended for appointment by several of the Colorado consumer organizations having been active in attempts at legal reform for consumers. Judgments other than monetary was a development that all interested parties were watching carefully, for if Colorado's Alternate Court could demonstrate successful handling of this variety of cases, it could serve as a guide for the other states. All in all, the noble experiment was off to a great start and people across the country, from all walks of life seemed to genuinely wish the new system success. 355

Epilog

EPILOG For the next five years, the civil court system in the United States underwent a drastic upheaval. Not all of the innovations tried were successful in improving the system. Of course there were the inevitable schemes and schemers trying to foist new laws or interpretations on the public for their own benefit. However, for the most part professor Lamb's admonition that we must reach the lawyers because we need them so, proved prophetic. Most lawyers, their professional organizations, judges, legislators, and law schools set about improving their relations with the public---not by propaganda, but by deeds. Their own professional organizations as well as the lives of individual lawyers were undergoing profound change. By now, the effects of Alternate courts in all of the states were being felt. Many lawyers were actively competing for business for the first time. Corporate lawyers, tax lawyers, criminal lawyers and others not directly affected by the changes in the civil court system were only now beginning to see changes. However, those lawyers whose main practice was directed at civil disputes were feeling the pinch. For the first 356

time in over 50 years. those who had subverted the law

to their own aggrandizement were finding themselves subject to a law that the rest of us have been living with forever. The law of supply and demand. So many civil disputes were being successfully adjuducated by the Alternate Courts, expeditiously, at no expense to the taxpayer, and without the services of an attorney, that an adjustment became necessary in the number of lawyers earning their living in this field. The best civil case attorneys simply concentrated on those cases that were referred to the old civil courts. However, those less able to compete were looking to other areas of law to begin a new specialty. Some went to work for private industry and some even tried lowering their fees to attract the smaller disputes that never reached the courts before because the costs had been prohibitive. These individuals needed to convince prospective clients that they could do them a better job than the Alternate Court could. Such a thing was now possible since the old Civil Courts were no longer as crowded. Cases there usually required no waiting to get on the docket and judges had dispensed with most of the old delay tactics. As Lamb had prophesied, "Some of the greatest benefits brom the new Alternate Courts may be the changes they bring about in 357 the old courts." The ramifications of the reform were not all detrimental to lawyers. Many in that profession welcomed the improvement in their image as percieved by the public. Already the law school. were noting an increased social consciousness in their applicants. People were beginning to choose law as a place where they could contribute to society and not just as a ticket to the big bucks. Much as the dentists did in the 1950 s, by putting the public s good ahead of their own pocket book, in helping children reduce cavities with flourides, the lawyers improved their image. As unexpected as the changes in society were, the effects of the long campaign on the individuals directly involved with PLEA were equally surprising. Simon Pardee had been offered and accepted the presidency of the National Courtroom Attorneys Association. Thus probably accounting for the organizations total change in direction. However, Simon was always quick to point out that the directional change had to come from the organization itself. He was probably right as usual, since the initial step in his achieving the presidency had to be the removal of the old president, John Sarchet. Nothing more had been heard from the COO Coup

358

movement. However, the professor's murder had never been solved.much less explained. U.S. government agents had reportedly raided the same island COO Coup used off the coast of Georgia, and also sent their agents into several other locations includ,ing a huge private estate in Michigan. Opposition from a well armed group of mercenaries was reported at several of the locations. Very little information had been made public, other than to announce that volumes of records had been confiscated. Supposedly the government was going over these records very carefully and promised arrests if any laws had been broken. The raids took place approximately six months ago, and so far no arrests had been made, Whether or not this activity had anything to do with the conspiracy the professor felt he had uncovered was impossible to ascertain. Kevin and Susanne, while not directly involved with PLEA,certainly represented honest hard working citizens caught up and destroyed by the old Civil Court system running amok. They had more or less put their lives back together albeit at a lesser economic level. The insurance problem that forced Kevin to give up his truck, although not getting any worse, had not improved enough to allow him to operate his own truck, However, he did have hope that the clamor the public was making about 359 lowering insurance rates would convince the companies they had better do something now that they no longer had the excuse of huge unwarranted settlements nor expensive trials. Kevin s family had simply adjusted to a less expensive lifestyle. When they took their vacations to Shasta, Kevin still pulled Mel's old boat with the two old motocycles in it. Actually, Jessie and Dan's lifestyle had undergone the biggest change. Dan said that he felt they had been promoted to being average. They bought themselves a nice home in a middle class neighborhood in San Clemente. Dan spent most of his time writing and publishing his books, and Jessie still maintained her practice in Simon's offices in Newport. As soon as it became obvious that propositions 17 and 72 were going to get the overwhelming support of the voters and a fair shake from the politicians, Dan began to disengage from PLEA. It wasn't so much that he felt that PLEA's work was done, as it was a realization that Jessie had been right. There materialized a veritable

army qf volunteers not only willing but anxious to push PLEA's goals. Dan did not sever ties completely. What he did, much to the pleasure of Jessie, was to delegate almost all of the important ongoing projects to others. He 360

remained primarily as a figurehead, feeling as always that PLEA's mandate was to bird dog the changes the people wanted in their civil court system. He had been approached by many people with causes--some related to PLEA s battle--some not, but all wanting to capitalize on his success. To all. he gave the same answer. That PLEA's work on civil court reform was not finished. That when all of the people of this country had available to them, the fairest, quickest civil justice possible, then and only then, would he be willing to let his organization consider any other direction. He advised all of them to continue to pursue their causes and told them that they were welcome to utilize any of PLEA's experience so long as they in no way infringed upon the organization itself . He was overjoyed that some of his ablest associates were trying to arouse the support of the people to do for the criminal law system what PLEA had been able to do for the civil system. Another thing that had made Jessie happy was his decision to take back all of his textbook royalties. The PLEA organization had plenty of money to pursue it's goals and by limiting its activities to that single direction, Dan was rellieved of the unpleasant chore of fundraising. As soon as he was no longer asking others for money, he felt no compunction in accepting his 361 earnings for himself and Jessie. She had never been one to covet the possession of money for money's sake. All she wanted was enough to get by on and a reasonable outlook for the future. She wasn't even possessive of the things money could buy, although when they decided to buy a house she did make every attempt to get her folk s old home in Laguna Beach. However, when she was quoted a price she had no trouble settling for their tract home in San Clemente. The agreed, people. and his best change in their lifestyle, they both was the chance to take vacations like normal In the past five years they had joined Kevin family at Shasta several times. Jessie showed

Dan how to waterski and took him up all of the families' old motorcycle trails. Dan had taken her back to Colorado where they rented a condo. Up on the ski slopes he paid her back for the many times she had laughed at him while he was learning to waterski. They had their eye on a motor home, and made plans to hit the road. Jessie didn't question for one minute Dan's adamant refusal to follow Lamb's advice to get into politics and utilize his success with PLEA to fight for ammendments and initiatives. He said, "The biggest mistake I've seen politicians make is to confuse one success with a mandate for future action. I gave the ablest lawyer I ever met,Stan Steward, all of the information Professor Lamb gave us. If there is any threat there, Stan will fight it. He believes in the people's right to govern themselves. By far the most successful--by societies standards-changes had been made in Sheila's life. Following PLEA's early successes with propositions 17 and 72 she pressed Dan to follow Professor Lamb's advice and get into politics. Then after her own political career had 362

begun with the appointment to the Alternative Systems Governing Board, she made contacts who wanted someone like Dan to run for different offices. however, as she watched Dan disengage from the demands of public life and after many rebuffs of her suggestions concerning his future, she stopped trying to sway him. When she stopped promoting Dan for public office, and began concentrating fully on her own endeavors, she realized how much she enjoyed the challenge. Always a superb organizer with a first rate mind, she soon realized that all of the years she had spent helping Mel, and the years working with PLEA, had prepared her for politics. Unlike Dan, who had accomplished so much, but genuinely disliked the limelight, she was in her element. And unlike Dan who was supremely happy that he and Jessie could get on with a life based on family, friends, and a home, Sheila relished the opportunity to work and travel and give speeches and perform. Not only that, but she was very good, and immediately after being appointed to a second term on the Governing Board, she was asked to run for state senator. She had been assured the backing of one of the major parties and had all but decided to accept. She felt that it was something that Mel would have wanted her to do. Plain old honest hard work, and good common sense had brought 363

a long way and she had supreme confidence now that she could help. The entire staff at PLEA felt that they had done something significant, and from the hundreds of letters that still poured into headquarters each week, someone had chosen one that seemed to epitimize the entire struggle and posted it on the bulletin board. The letter was addressed to Dan Jordan, President of PLEA, and read:

364 Letter: Dear Sir, Two years ago I sent a small donation to your organization, because I hoped that you could do something to help people like my wife and myself. I didn't write my story at that time because I didn't think it was important enough. Years ago, my wife and I started a small family business in a little town in California. Our family grew and so did the business,and when the children were raised and on their own my wife and I decided to sell the business and retire. The first buyers paid $15,000 down, but because of their inexperience were unable to make the payments They asked if they could sell to a second buyer. We agreed if the second buyer would sign a promissory note to us for the remainder of the price of the business. We all met at the sale and the new buyer signed the note and took many thousands of dollars worth of our inventory and equipment to his new place of business. When the new buyer refused to make payments to us, we were forced to sue. Our attorneys fought his attorneys for six years without even getting him into court. During this time

365

our old business was paying his attorneys fees while we

were going into debt paying our bills. Each time our law firm assigned us a new attorney we were billed for the outgoing attorney's time putting the case in order plus the new attorney's time getting acquainted with the facts of the case. Many thousands of dollars later, we were running out of money, our health, and our sanity. That is when we sent PLEA our small donation. Why am I telling you all of this now? Because as soon as the Alternate Court was established we submitted our case. When we were accepted, it cost us $2500 for court costs. A fraction of what our lawyers had charged. That fee covered the cost of the courtroom, the judge and two jurors that decided our case, paralegal help,and self quiding textbooks to help us prepare our own case. We paid a small additional fee for subpoena service, but that is all it cost us--and it didn't cost the taxpayers anything. Sixty five days later, the judge and jurors voted in our favor. I'm certain that if we had had enough money to pursue the case through the old courts the decision would have been the same. The buyer of our business now has three options: 1.) he can pay us, 2.) he can declare bankruptcy, or 3.) he can appeal to the old courts. However, if he appeals he must pay all of 366

our legal fees including our lawyers. I don't know how it will come out, but the relief in getting a quick decision may have saved our lives. My wife and I will be forever indebted to you and your organization. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.