Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Lost in a legal thicket

Learning experiences present themselves in the most disconcerting disguises.

I was in a funk from the repeated brush-offs by officious city stooges.

The effect known as "Drowning man grasps at straws" kicked in. I'll sue my neighbors for harassment! After all, I'd been told several times that there was nothing the city could do, and this was a private matter between two citizens. (A lie, oft repeated, acquires the patina of truth.) Just to make sure I learned the maximum from this experience, I eschewed legal counsel and attempted to file a civil harassment complaint on my own.

It is fortunate, indeed, that the court commissioner who reviewed the papers I filed rejected them immediately. Undoubtedly, my amateurish attempt at self-representation invoked feelings of sympathy in him. He kindly gave me the code section into which my filing did NOT fit. My filing fee check was returned paper-clipped to the papers. I felt very much like I did many decades ago in grade school when the teacher handed my work back with red pencil marks all over it.

All in all, it wasted another couple weeks, but got my feet firmly on the ground for the continuing journey. I was cured of the notion of taking the city to court without professional legal assistance.

On August 5th I consulted with an attorney.

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