You Just Never Know What Will Happen In A Week

You start just fine and it is amazing how a little lawsuit can mess up your whole week.

Yes I was sued this last week, by my own company. They are upset that so many of their reps have left over the past two months that they lashed out at me to tried to punish the other company.

It has been a nightmare week. They charged me with stealing trade secrets, identity theft, fraud, and conspiracy. The complaint was 56 pages of accusations. They had hired a huge national law firm out of Chicago charging $1,500 an hour to attack me and this other company.

My regular work stopped and I launched into overdrive to find a lawyer to represent me in time for a Friday appearance in court. There are a lot of nuts out there and it is expensive to search for a lawyer, but I found one by Wed and we rehearsed on Thurs and prepared for the hearing. Late Thursday night we heard that the two parties may have reached a settled agreement, but we would still have to appear in court. They reached an agreement when the other side realized that they had NO case against me because I hadn’t done anything wrong. I still had to pay for the lawyer.

It was a strange feeling to sit in court (like you see on TV) with a black robed judge, court reporters, and contentious lawyers. The judge read the charges of theft and fraud and I felt so embarrassed. Even though I hadn’t done anything wrong, I felt that the people in the court would look at me like a thief. I felt so dirty and wanted to crawl under the bench. It isn’t how I want my name to be used. The judge then announced that there was an agreement between the parties, but I didn’t get to speak up and clear my name. I wanted to yell out, “I didn’t do anything”.

I imagined what it would be like to be brought before the bar of God and have our sins read aloud. As it says in the scriptures (Alma 12:14)

14 For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence.

The saving grace would be that Jesus Christ is our advocate with the Father and a balance between Justice and Mercy will prevail. If we have repented, then that time before the judgment bar may be a sweet experience. We will realize all that our Savior has done for us personally to remove the pain and embarrassment. We will tap into an outpouring of love so monumental and realize all that we owe our Redeemer.

I would rather read about court cases than experience them first hand and have to pay all the legal costs. Life moves on.

Saturday somewhat made up for the misery of the previous week. Mom and I went on a 2 hour bike ride. And in the late afternoon took “Thomas” crazed Jensen to see the real live Thomas at the Colorado Train Museum. He was in a daze as he crawled over, in, out, and through all these trains on display. For the finale we got to ride on Thomas as he circled the yard three times. I’ve never seen Jensen so calm and excited at the same time. It was a great Grandparent event.