Listen well, while I tell you a story ….(Part II)
"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!' "
What if
someone dared rewrite Bleak House? What if the seemingly endless law suit
contesting the will did not go for litigation? What if the parties did not
focus only on themselves? What if the parties decided to forgo some claim in
return for some other benefit? What if they tried to find some common ground
for agreement? What if the parties generated creative options to settle the
dispute?
Conflict is
inevitable and exists in all walks of life, and not just in books or movies.
Conflict in itself is not bad or dangerous, in fact progress in society arises
from differing opinions and resultant conflict. However, It is the unchecked escalation
of conflict which is detrimental to peace and progress, in its extreme form,
conflict may even lead to loss of life. Disputes involving difference of opinion of
law or fact, sometimes, even leads to feelings of hurt, loss of trust, and
breakdown of relationships. In Bleak House pieces of evidence and counter
evidence coupled with the questionable justice meted out by the judicial system
of the day, leads to the loss of life, sanity and the inheritance. Children who
were wards of court grew old, and died of old age, children were born with the
dispute as their legacy, and hated each other simply because they were opponents
to a court case, of which they knew little.
The party who has approached the court says, “I was forced there,
because the law forced me, and would let me go nowhere else.”
What if he
could go some place else? What if there was an impartial body who helped him
settle the case quickly and, in a manner, most suited to him and his opponents,
without “the Lawyers have (ing) twisted it into such a state of bedevilment
that the original merits of the case have long disappeared from the face of the
earth”? Then perhaps the inheritance would have been saved, old Tom Jarndyce would
not have taken his own life, Miss Flite might have kept her sanity, the Jarndyce
family would have maintained some nuances of cordiality and relationship with its
members, and perhaps, Richard would have not waited in vain to inherit, and
would have married Ada much earlier in the presence and with the blessings of
the family, instead of resorting to a secret marriage and delaying their short
lived happiness; and might have perhaps lived with her happily ever after,
instead of getting worn out by the case, developing consumption and prematurely dying.
And now,
therefore, listen well, while I tell you this story…. listen well and learn…. “why
litigate, when you can mediate?”
-
Pearl Monteiro
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