Page 121 of The Rules Of Attraction
Chapter 21
Alex
* * *
The day for the meeting finally arrived.
I had to force myself back to the real world, and back to this case that had burdened my mind.
We were in the largest meeting room.
Mrs. Denman sat opposite us with Jude Kennedy, her lawyer.
I’d met Jude in court before and knew the guy was a badass lawyer. He wiped the floor with me a few years back, but hadn’t managed to do it since.
I’d watched him with Mrs. Denman.
I could feel her nerves. She had the typical victim look. Haggard and drained.
Devon on the other hand sat beside me, smug like some kingpin who owned everything.
Summer sat at the desk in the corner with her computer ready to take the minutes. Jude’s PA sat opposite her doing the same.
Summer glanced across at me and gave me a little smile. It helped and reminded me what I had to look forward to later.
It was a slow day for us. We decided that because we didn’t know how this meeting was going to flair out.
“Are we all ready to get started?” I asked opening the floor. We’d been sitting her for about five minutes getting what we needed ready.
“We’re ready.” Jude replied.
“Good.” Here goes. I pulled in a breath. “We’ve looked at your clients demands and have decided to offer a refund of the money that was paid for the investment as a gesture of goodwill.”
Jude immediately looked pissed off. “Are you kidding? You’re client’s company had a duty of care to make sure they looked into what mine was investing in. She lost more than what she paid out, and she’s unable to work because of it.”
“Mrs. Denman signed a disclaimer, she knew what she was getting into. It’s unreasonable to expect my client to do anything more. He shouldn’t even have to offer a refund.” That was my best argument.
“A disclaimer is nothing. There was a duty of care here to at least make sure what she was putting her money into was suitable for her. Even if no further advice was given. My client relied on the information she was given and bought stocks in a company that hadn’t been assessed properly in terms of their longevity. The shares plummeted after a few weeks. That’s crazy.” Jude fumed, looking at me as if I should have seen the incredulity of that. “It’s a little suspicious don’t you think?”
My skin felt numb. Jude couldn’t have been more right. But I wasn’t here to agree with him.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to imply, but investments are risky. When you invest you take a risk. We all know and accept that.” I straightened up and squared my shoulders. “What happened to Mrs. Denman is very unfortunate, and I sympathize, but I don’t agree that my client exercised any form of ill will or misconduct. If anything he went above and beyond himself to exercise customer care.”
I felt like such an asshole for saying that. Saying what I didn’t believe. And… all the while Devon sat next to me with his stupid smug face like he had this in the bag.
“You know this is wrong, Alex.” Jude held my gaze.
“I’m not here to decide what is wrong or right. I’m here to set out what happened within the realms of the law. A disclaimer was signed showing me a conversation must have taken place to highlight that my client would not be held responsible for any losses on a risky new investment. She was provided with a copy of all the terms and conditions, and information on the investment. That is fact. I’m arguing fact. You are arguing ethics.”
Jude pressed his lips together. “This has mishandling written all over it. There were no steps taken to ensure the investment was suitable, and nothing was ever mentioned about the extra riskiness of this particular investment.”
“Mrs. Denman was contacted and informed of a great investment opportunity that was expected to have a great return. At the time the market showed that it did. If I said the same about fluff because some celeb had made it popular, you’d probably invest too. It would be no one’s fault if the fluff took a nose dive days later and became worthless because another celeb made something else popular. It’s just how the market works.”
“Right, well I guess this has to be settled in court then.” Jude nodded, eyeing me with dismay.
I knew this would happen.
It was only when Devon heard that that he shuffled next to me.
