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Show ( 7T7 JUST STUFF BY JAM Vk My faith in the American Jus-: Jus-: tice System is waning. Until recently re-cently I had the utmost faith and i unyielding confidence in our court ! system. And then I dealt with the ; j court system directly. i You've heard the adage "Three ! strikes and you're out." Well, Kraig j and I have struck out twice already with the court system, and we've pretty much decided that the only way to win is to stay clear of the court system entirely. Our first dealing with the courts started just after we moved into our home in Salt Lake City. Shortly I after we moved in we had to put a new roof on the home because the old one leaked so badly. Had we known that three short weeks after moving in we would have to replace re-place the roof, we would have revised re-vised our purchase offer. But we were young and foolish and ! trusting. We felt the home had been mis- j ; represented and we decided to "see ' i justice prevail." We sued the previ-X previ-X I ous owner, feeling quite confid' : ' that the courts would find in Our favor. Let's face it, one usually i doesn't sue if one anticipates los- ! ing. . . Almost three years, several j sleepless nights and thousands of I dollars in attorney fees later, we i : found that 1 hoor didn't see the ! situation as U,J. We lost the case. Of course we did learn a few ! valuable, but costly lessons. We learned that when buying a home, . one should have the house inspected in-spected prior to the purchase. This is a valuable lesson; however, I can't think that in the near future I am going to be able to make use of such a lesson buying a home isn't something I do every two or three years. We also learned that even if someone promises something verbally, ver-bally, if it isn't written down, it ! ! never was said. And another lesson ' learned is the fallacious use of the i1 word "speedy," as in "fair and : speedy" trial, which as Americans I we all have a right to. I made the j j mistake of always assuming that j 1 that meant any trial, not just those I dealing with heinous crimes, or those on TV. Our simple suit over our leaky roof took three years to get before the judge! We were on the other side of the ; j coin in our second dealing with the ! courts. This time we were the de- 1 i ! fendants. Three years ago, when we I were in the midst of our leaky roof ; suit, we took our truck in to have j some repairs made. We ended up ; ! having the transmission rebuilt. . i To make a long story short, we 1 i . A weren't satisfied with the service provided. The transmission shop provided shoddy workmanship, made erroneous promises, rendered untimely service and did not provide pro-vide the service for which we paid. Because of the problems we encountered, en-countered, and extra expenses we incurred, we felt justified in stopping stop-ping our full payment and reducing it to reflect the services we received. re-ceived. It took the owner of the transmission shop almost three years to decide that he didn't agree, before he took us to small claims court Again we felt confident with our case. We had letters and receipts stating our cause, evidence that we thought proved our case. Once again the judge failed to see our side of the situation. Not only did we get dinged for the transmission in the truck we no longer have, we got stuck with the court costs, to boot. Losing a court case is painful, not only to the pocketbook, but also to one's pride. In both cases, Ktuig and I did what we felt was fair and just. In both cases we were told we were wrong, and -n one wants to be wrong! Despite these not so positive experiences, even with its minor flaws, the American Justice System is really the fairest in the land. In both cases we had the opportunity to appeal. You've heard the adage "Everyone will get their day in court," well, Kraig and I have had two, and I think we'll pass in the future. |