Rhyme and Reason

A man walked into the courtroom A major case to try Despite an ironclad contract His customer refused to buy His lawyer warned him, however That nothing is ever sure But the seller was still confident Cuz he'd given ten chances to cure The jury panel came into the courtroom Some more eager than others And twelve peers were selected Including one who had other druthers And the trial went forward From openings to plaintiffs case To defendant's turn and rebuttal At a surprisingly efficient pace And it was only a matter of days Before the judge gave final instructions And sent the jury to deliberate Even the one who was reluctant And while the jury deliberated, behind the lawyers' backs the defendant approached the plaintiff And admitted it was funds that he lacked The plaintiff saw an option And offered to partner the sale So long as they split sixty forty And the defendant called it a deal They tracked down their lawyers and quickly got the clerk on the phone who then told the judge what had happened And he sent the jurors all home To some this is a story of waste Of justice, money and time But for others it shows the system Can lead to justice of the ultimate kind For true justice is resolution And win-win is the best of all Its not always the jurors verdict That is the truly best call. Sometimes you have to spend money And a fair bit of time Before the fog clears and everyone sees The reason inside the rhyme. Under Analysis is a nationally syndicated column of the Levison Group. Charles Kramer is a principal of the St. Louis, Missouri law firm Riezman Berger PC. Comments or criticisms about this column may be sent to the Levison Group at comments@levison group com. © 2017 Under Analysis L.L.C. Published: Fri, Aug 11, 2017