When I was younger, I had a lovely friend who liked to play cards. Even though his favourite game was Hearts, he was willing to try new ones. Because I grew up during the Luddite era, when TVs only came in black and white and had three channels, people often played card games on rainy days, four if you count a local station. We would play board games like chess when we got tired of cards.

We would switch things up every so often. We would come up with new ways to play old games. It was hard to play the games because the rules changed all the time. But what was going on kept us busy. Everyone thought that the harder the job, the better, which led to disagreements. Because neither of us had written down the rules, we soon forgot how to play the advanced game. It looks like playing games has lost some of their excitement. Software and other tricks contain the rules. Plain and simple, wet days are different. Different rules mean different things for lawyers. You must do what’s expected of you. The other person should have to deal with the consequences if they break the rules. 

When we start to think that our rules are the only ones, that’s when rules become a problem. They get very hard when the other person follows a different set of rules. I was the lawyer for the company in court cases. There was something that happened at one of our stores. We tried to come to a deal, but the lawyer for the plaintiff wanted a lot of money. Due to the amount that was being asked for, the corporation’s insurance company took over the lawsuit and the defence. The insurance company hired a defence lawyer with a Harvard Law School degree and a lot of experience.

As you might expect, the plaintiff got the highest verdict the state has ever given for a case like this. The state supreme court, which had five people on it, agreed with the decision. You guessed it, the plaintiff’s lawyer had given a lot of money to four of them to help them stay in office. Three of the four have represented plaintiffs in the past. Harvard and the person who sued used different rules. As the rules of the legal field change, most American lawyers no longer know how the game is played. Before, lawyers used to practise law. That was the end of it; the law stayed the same. With the new law, a lot of different groups now offer services that can be grouped together as “legal services.” By almost any standard, providing these services is the same as “practising law” in some cases. Most of the time, the services are called unclear. 

But because the rules have changed, more people are playing the game now. If only actors from the United States could act, there would only be one story. On the other hand, the game is more interesting. There are players from every country in the world, and there are a lot of them.