Okay so the title may or may not be an over-dramatisation of the actual events, but there is no down-playing the magnitude of my involvement in what was essentially a technology-assisted legal hearing for a friend of ours who has since moved over to the United States. She found herself in the rather unfortunate situation of having to go the legal route in filing a claim to get some compensation in a legal matter that arose from her involvement in a car accident, a mere two weeks after officially taking up residence in the USA.
Right, so it wasn’t an all-out legal battle and eventually quite a sizeable settlement was reached, but I felt like I was on one of those detective type TV series I often bump into when flicking through the channels, like NCIS, CSI or Law & Order. Who would have thought that our little study room would ever be beamed across the Atlantic for reasons other than to video chat with my friend? We did indeed use Skype, but apparently the entire Q & A session was being recorded. I even had to take an oath before we got started.
At first I was rather baffled by the types of questions I was called upon to answer, but as time went by I realised the attorneys were really just building up some kind of character reference and I must say I was quite impressed with how professional they were, given what most of us mere mortals use applications like Skype for.
The lawyers were from Hansen Injury Law Firm and these guys are very thorough, leaving no stone unturned from my point of view since questioning even permeated areas such as how often my friend used to drive to our property to pop over for a visit. I’m not a trained legal expert – far from it in fact, but I would have been super intimidated had I been on the other side of the fence.
Cases like these can definitely make for some very slippery ground, but all that was really required of me was to answer truthfully, making no effort at all to try and help the case of my friend. In the end she got what was due to her and fortunately the compensation amount she received will allow her to get back on her feet in no time.
There are still some minor health issues left to sort out, but the good thing about that is that it’s all part of the recovery process. She’s rapidly speeding down the road to recovery, which is an analogy that has nothing to do with how she got involved in the car accident (it wasn’t her fault) and we can all rest easy.
I’m all the way across the Atlantic but given half the chance I would rope in the services of Hansen Injury Law should I ever find myself in a situation which warrants their expertise. I guess this is what people often speak about when they talk about good old American excellence.