Lawyers have an interesting relationship with truth, even when they are doing their job competently and with the integrity that their qualification demands of them.
This week we had a current, senior employed lawyer under the microscope for two days. I am not going to enter into a detailed account now of what was revealed or suggested there. There is a book’s worth to digest and make sense of, not least on the ways in which lawyers manage truth, but I am going to say this:
My, how he wriggled.
To give one example only. One of his tactics, or tics to suggest a charitable alternative, was to say he did not understand the terms that were being put to him.
To the surprise of almost every commercial lawyer in the land he committed the cardinal sin of appearing not to understand what a strategy was, or what a fixer is.
He must have missed the class in Commercial Awareness #101.
But, because he is still a senior employee, involved in remediation no less, it was an interesting moment. There won’t be that many more like it because most of the coming witnesses have long left Post Office. It was a chance to think about how sincere the Post Office is when it issues the now formulaic statements that they have been issuing when asked to comment on each bomb the media lets off under them (such as):
“We are deeply sorry for the hurt and suffering caused to victims and their loved ones and remain fully focused on getting to the truth of what happened and supporting the statutory Public Inquiry, which commenced Phases 5 and 6 of evidence gathering today to achieve this.”
Aside from wondering whether the Post Office is more shallowly than deeply sorry, I turn back to the central point.
Truth? I’m not sure what you mean by that.
