To my great fortune, I grew up in a family that was not only sound and had good core values, but I was also blessed with a mother who framed me to be the good person I am today. Remembering her and her ways, I can clearly attest to the fact of how much a mother loves her children. But one particular case was just about reinforce my faith that a mother can go to any lengths for her child, even a dead one.
(As you know that I cannot disclose myself and my clients details in any of my blogs hence, let’s call my client, in this case, as Mrs. Doubtfire after one of my favorite character.)
When Mrs. Doubtfire first entered office, upon seeing her weakened 60 something frame, I had no idea what the old woman would be here for. But I was sooner going to find out that she would represent one of the most special cases I have had over the years. Mrs. Doubtfire wanted me to sue a city restaurant for ‘killing’ her son. The restaurant was one of city’s finest and well known one, it was also supposedly linked to the Italian mafia.
Mrs. Doubtfire’s son worked at the restaurant in question as a junior chef and he died due to consumption of meat contaminated with E.Coli bacteria at the restaurant. Mrs. Doubtfire not only wanted justice she also wanted to go after the meat producer due to whose meat her son had died. I told her that going after the meat producer would be a very difficult task but I did assure her that I would give my level best to try and get the restaurant to pay.
Mrs. Doubtfire had come prepared; she handed me a big bunch of documents and topped them with a copy of documentary called ‘Food Inc.’. However she did ask me to return the documentary once I was finished watching it.
This pro bono case was not without hurdles. No sooner had I taken the case, I was asked to drop it for a European client. That got me in between rock and a hard place kind of scenario since I had already promised Mrs. Doubtfire that I would take up her case after so many lawyers had denied her due to the Italian Mafia and on the other side, disobedience meant a severe setback to the chances of making it partner or worse case scenario of getting fired.
I chose the middle way. I assured the boss that I would be taking both the cases without affecting the work quality of either. That was I promise I made to myself more than the boss. I told Mrs. Doubtfire of the scenario and even though she did not like it very much, she decided that she would help me out as much as she could. To be honest, I felt that it was Mrs. Doubtfire who did all the work on the case; I just stood in court and made the arguments.
Her efforts paid off in the end. The restaurant came to settle and we settled on a seven figure amount. But that was not just the thing Mrs. Doubtfire wanted. She made the restaurant promise to help her in the case against the meat-producer and also in reinstating Kevin’s Law. I was a bit shocked when she made the demand without consulting me but I smiled and pushed the matter during settlement. The restaurant finally gave in.
Mrs. Doubtfire was happy that she finally got the restaurant to admit that they had been instrumental in her son’s death. The money didn’t matter to her; in fact, she was going to use it to launch a campaign to bring back Kevin’s Law and bring down the meat producer.
I applauded Mrs. Doubtfire for her conviction and her courage and I told her that I knew how she felt about the whole affair. She finally broke down to tears remembering her son and I consoled her by telling her that she was one of the greatest mothers of the universe who had fought such a great battle. I told her that she was the epitome of the saying that ‘the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world’.
