The unsettling truth about settling: Part two

• Author: The Honourable Joseph W. Quinn
• Pages: 189-203

189

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e unselin uh abu elin:

PART TWO

THE HONOURABLE JOSEPH . QUINN*

Once upon a time, in a Kingdom far away, I was a lawyer.

I recall that 99 percent of my professional headaches were

caused by fewer than 5 percent of my les. A friend of mine

referred to those problem les as “movers.” He would stack them on a

corner of his desk and, every week or so, move them to a dierent corner.

Even today, when I am asked what it takes to be a trial lawyer, I reply, “A

big desk with as many corners as possible.”

Is there anything more satisfying than settling a problem le without

a trial and being paid a nice fee for doing so? What about taking some of

those les to trial and getting a successful result? Realistically, if you are

light on courtroom experience, a trial is unlikely to happen.

Are you content being a trial lawyer who does not do trials? Really? If,

on a golf course, you hit every green in regulation gures but then pick

up your ball and walk to the next tee because you do not know how to

putt, are you still a golfer? Just asking.

* Portions of this article formed the basis of an oral presentation by the Honourable

Joseph W. Quinn, Superior Court of Justice (retired), at the annual general meeting

of the Canadian Defence Lawyers Association in Toronto on June 8, 2017. The arti-

cle is a sequel to “The unsettling truth about settling” (Advocates’ Journal, Winter

2016).