I have claimed an affinity for laconic speech. My favourite example is this:

Philip II of Macedon sent a message to Sparta;

You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city.”

The Spartan ephors sent back a one word reply:

If”.

In REDS, WHITES, GREENS, BLUES I referred to the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. I have grown fond of them, despite their name change to the American Association for Justice.

Brazenly breaching their copyright, the following is a quote from a former ATLA President Ted Koskoff, a trial lawyer from Connecticut.

If you are a lawyer, you stand between the abuse of governmental power and the individual. If you are a lawyer, you stand between the abusive corporate power and the individual. If you are a lawyer, you stand between the abusive judicial power and the individual. If you are a lawyer, you are a hair shirt to the smugness and complacency of society; if you are a lawyer, you help mold the rights of individuals for generations to come.

In a personal injury case, acting for the Plaintiff, we fought for three and a half days with about a day and a half still to go, when we settled. When the settlement was announced to the judge he asked for the figure at which we settled. On learning it, (he should not have asked and on asking should have been met with a demurrer) he remarked it was IR£30,000 too much.

It was a moment of pure (unfair) competition. The parties had struggled for three and a half days and now the judge had leaped into the forensic arena, cuffing the Defendant’s lawyers.

The apotheosis of competition was the chariot racing in ancient Rome.
There were four teams, identified by the colours red, white, blue, green. When the Emperor Domitian introduced Purples and Golds, they endured only for the residue of his reign.

Life expectancy for the drivers and the horses was short.

At least in the practice of civil law we do not run those risks, and although a law suit can be a contact and spectator sport it is possible to encounter a law suit that is just pure fun.

The “Association of Trial Lawyers of America� changed their name to the “American Association for Justice�. (There is an essay waiting to be written on that alone).

Some non-AAJ lawyers then formed “The Association of Trial Lawyers of America� whereupon the AAJ issued proceedings against TheATLA to prevent them from misleading the public (presumably among other things).

How can you lose in following that case?