Voltaire “I was ruined but twice – once when I lost a law suit, and once when I won.”
Samuel Butler “In law, nothing is certain but the expense.”
“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser – in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.”
Abraham Lincoln
In December 2012, Stephen Fry’s QI series claimed that Dickens’ Jarndyce v Jarndyce was based on the case of William Jennens from Acton, Suffolk and known as the Acton Miser. Jennens v Jennens commenced in 1798 and was abandoned in 1915 (117 years later) when the legal fees had exhausted the Jennens estate of funds. The case had been running for 55 years when Bleak House was published.
