From the Wool-sack
| Publication year | 1989 |
| Pages | 275 |
1989, February, Pg. 275. FROM THE WOOL-SACK
Are you tired of members of our profession suing the innocent tort-feasor and defending the guilty criminal? Do you long for the days when lawsuits dealt with simpler matters than eleven-year suits between corporate giants? If so, you'll take pleasure from the newest twist in litigation. It comes from, of all places, the Philippines. It is a suit demanding the restoration of innocence.
Those of us who are jaded by life in the twentieth century have always believed that innocence lost is difficult, if not impossible, to regain. Comes now a group of plaintiffs who in more complex times would be described as a "class." They not only believe that innocence lost can be regained but believe that litigation is the way to do it. That is good news for the litigator since, if these plaintiffs are successful, the use of litigation to regain innocence, restore virtue and lord knows what else will be the wave of the future. ADR will no longer pose a threat to those who make their livings in the courtrooms.
Lest credit be given where none is due, I confess at the outset that I did not think up this lawsuit myself. I learned about it from a newspaper. The notion that it might be useful for those who have lost their innocence, virtue and similar qualities, however, is my own. (I realize that if innocence can be regained through litigation, organized religion is in deep trouble. This is, however, a secular publication, and that issue will not be dealt with in this column.)
The people who invented the idea of Restoration of Innocence through Litigation are called the "Tasaday." They live on Mindanao Island in the Philippines. They are primitives. They live in caves with no heat, lights or running water. They do not wear shirts, ties, skirts or suits except in the picture they had taken for the newspaper. In that, the mother was wearing a dress and a nice bracelet and the baby had on a cute little shirt.
Their lack of dress is not the only thing that marks them as simple. Their language is also simple. They have no word for war, enemy or ocean. Other words may be missing as well. The account I read, however, neglected to say which ones they were. Lawsuit and litigation, it is safe to say, were not among the missing. Happily.
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