Notes from the Trenches (21)

Article source: ConstructConnect

• In the 2008-2009 recession, employment with legal services firms fell significantly and subsequently stayed down. When the far shore of the pandemic crisis is finally reached, the legal community will receive a big boost. The number of individuals and companies engaging in legal action may well exceed those shying away.

• There’ll be employees suing bosses for unfairly terminating their jobs. There’ll be workers who’ve suffered health damage and feel they were wrongly put at risk. There’ll be companies suing governments for enforced shutdowns resulting in bankruptcies. There’ll be landlords suing tenants for rent payment delinquencies. There’ll be banks going after homeowners to take back mortgages in default.

• A prime beneficiary of the lawsuits will be television stations, through their advertising revenue. TV commercials prior to COVID-19 were already featuring pitches by an ever-growing number of personal injury attorneys. Wait ‘til the litigation experts get their teeth into this coronavirus mess.

• The words ‘six feet’ have long held a sinister connotation, as in ‘he’s planted six feet under’, because that’s the standard depth to which a grave is dug. ‘Two meters’ doesn’t have the same poetic ring. Recently, the phrase ‘six feet’ has taken on a new meaning. It’s become synonymous with ‘social distancing’.

• The other day, my wife and I were on a neighborhood walk when we saw a pair of children, probably sisters, some lengths away drawing with chalk on the sidewalk. We swung around them. Hours later, after the earlier sighting had been forgotten and I was out with our dog Darcy, I just happened upon the artwork. The picture depicted two girls skipping rope, but with a line drawn between them, an arrow at either end. There was lettering above the line reading ‘6 feet’. … Makes you wonder. How are our children and grandchildren going to be affected by these days when they grow up?

Category: ConstructConnect

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