Craven Conflict

by David Cooper

  “If it may assist the court, Your Honour, my friend appears to have been given incomplete instructions about how this matter needed to be handled, having only recently been asked to deal with it. You may wish to adjourn this petition rather than dismiss it. We all make mistakes.”

  “Fair point, Miss Phillips. Adjourned to the first open date after twenty eight days. No order as to costs. Next?”

  Craven thanked his rescuer profusely and gathered his papers, hoping to slink off and explain to Squire that it was not his fault that the order had been refused when he had never been told that he had no right to address the court. But he had reckoned without the financial controller, who confronted him in the corridor. After some choice language about the value of the lost tax concession, he had invited Craven to ‘get hold of a bloody book from W.H. Smiths’ next time he was due in court, and hinted darkly that ‘your firm haven’t heard the last of this’ before ostentatiously taking out his phone and answering the receptionist’s greeting with ‘Rufus Squire, please’. As Craven wavered between leaving and waiting, not knowing what the client wanted him to do, he was peremptorily ushered on his way with an abrupt ‘clear off’ and an angry wave of a hand.

  The writing was on the wall for Craven as soon as he returned to the office and found an email from Squire, marked High Priority. It simply read See Me At Once. He headed straight to Squire’s office, still carrying the Edgborne Materials file, and smarting under a sharp sense of injustice. But he was given no chance.

  “I think you’d better explain yourself. Quickly.”

  Squire’s tone of voice, while menacing, was even. But the effusive apology that he was expecting from Craven did not materialise.

  “You never told me what to do. The only instructions I ever had on this file were a scrawl on a Post It label saying Please Deal With This, and Caroline’s checklist. I wasn’t to know that it needed someone with rights of audience. She obviously had rights of audience. You should have explained it properly. Or given it to someone else.”

  Craven was by now oblivious to the offence he was giving to his head of department. It may have been his perceived insubordination that tipped the balance. Or the unpalatable truth that Squire himself had not properly thought about what he was delegating, in his hurry to wash his hands of a legacy file from an assistant on maternity leave rather than trouble himself personally with a court appointment that he considered beneath him. But it made no difference, as Squire lost almost all of his self control and shouted at the top of his voice.

  “How dare you!” Squire’s mood was by now verging on apoplectic. “Anyone with half a brain should have realised what this needed! Christ Almighty, we might be up against a negligence action for missing out on this tax deadline. And if that’s what happens, I’m bloody well holding you responsible! Now get out of my sight while I try and sort it out. This instant!”

  Craven could not close Squire’s door behind him quickly enough. He noticed every secretary on the open plan floor staring in the direction of Squire’s office, as well as a number of lawyers who had left their desks and were standing in their doorways, wondering what had sparked off Squire’s rage. Dropping his gaze to the floor, he hurried back to his own office.

  It took Craven almost two hours before he could bring himself to look at any more client work. The lunch break came and went, and he left his sandwiches untouched. No one came in to see him, and he did not venture out of his office. For a long time, he could not gather any constructive thoughts together as he stared into space. He finally picked up the phone and rang Jackie’s number, only to be met with a message reporting her to be out for the day. As the cloud of despair descended once more, he switched to his mobile phone and called Avery, only for the number to ring out endlessly.

  He said I should wait for at least three months before looking around again. But how can I?

  And what about this court case? All those promises they made…

  But when he least expected a lifeline of any kind, an email from Squire headed ‘Edgborne: Good News’ landed in his inbox.

  ‘Paul, you’re off the hook. I spoke to the clients again and we worked out that they’ll have another chance to claim the tax credit in the subsequent six months. With interest rates still being rock bottom, there’s no loss that’s worth them losing any sleep over. Let’s learn our lessons and move on. Give the file to Roger and he’ll deal with it when it’s relisted. RS.’

  Craven’s relief was so overwhelming that the lack of any apology on Squire’s part for his torrent of rage earlier that day simply passed him by. He grabbed the file and hurried out in the direction of Blake’s office. Blake listened to Craven’s explanation and took the file off him, promising to let the clients know that it was now in his hands. He tactfully chose not to say anything about what he had inadvertently heard across the department floor earlier that day.

  When Craven returned to his office, his phone rang and he hurriedly picked it up, wondering if it might be Avery. The voice on the other end was unfamiliar but friendly.

  “Hello Paul, we’ve not spoken before. I’m Frank Wharton. I’ll keep this short because I’m still on holiday in Devon until the weekend.”

  “Oh, hello, Mr Wharton.”

  “Please call me Frank. Now, I’m supposed to be seeing you on Monday, to run through these last issues on the report I’ve promised Tony Wagstaff, but it’s my first day back and I’ve got too much to deal with. I know all about your deadline for serving the report, so I’ve moved something out of my diary on Tuesday morning, and if that’s OK with you I’ll be at Tony’s office at ten o’clock on the dot. How’s that?”

  “Er…yes, Frank, I’m free.”

  “Splendid. I’ll see you then, Paul. Look forward to meeting you.”

  Wharton rang off. Craven was at a loss to understand how someone evidently confined to a wheelchair still managed to sound so jovial and upbeat. He thought for a moment whether he ought to tell Wagstaff about the new time, especially as the meeting with Wharton would now be occupying him on the morning of his own court appearance on Avery’s behalf later that day. It did not take him long to decide that Wagstaff would not welcome any minor interruption when preoccupied with trial preparation, so he kept the change of plan to himself.

  Thursday 13 th June

  “Thank you both for coming over. I’d probably better start by explaining exactly what’s going to happen on Monday and Tuesday.”

  Karen and Lennie had gone over to Soraya’s chambers for a final conference ahead of the trial, following Lennie’s finishing touches to the brief and to the document bundles earlier in the week. The arrival of Craven’s statement had been an unwelcome final twist, but not one that he could simply wish away.

  For her own part, Karen knew she was at the point of no return. On the previous evening, she had had a lengthy phone conversation with Edward, neither of them holding any ulterior motives. She had hoped for reassurance and a sympathetic ear, and Edward had not let her down. In her own mind she feared that there was little chance of a change of heart on Avery’s part. The prospect that he might after all come up with an acceptable settlement offer, which included an undertaking to leave her clients and candidates alone for the remainder of the restraint period, seemed as remote as ever. She had tentatively asked whether Edward would be in Birmingham over the weekend, only to find out that this was unlikely unless the current surgical rota changed.

  Soraya was confident that Lennie had left no stone unturned, both in searching for relevant material in support of Karen’s side of the story, and in carefully analysing the evidence for traps and loopholes. On paper, Karen’s case undoubtedly stood up and appeared to be free of fatal flaws. However, the same could equally be said of Avery’s case. The performance of each side’s witnesses under cross examination was going to be crucial.

  “You’ll be first up, Karen, once we’ve dealt with the housekeeping. I’ll ask you to confirm that the contents of your two statements are still true and
accurate. Then the real challenge begins.”

  Karen looked across the table and raised her eyebrows by way of enquiry.

  “In old times, the judge would expect you to read your statement out, and let me ask you some soft questions to back it up. That’s all gone now. The judge reads all the statements in advance. And there’s no danger of this judge missing anything, especially when the case has been in front of her twice already. So we head straight into cross examination. My opponent will be putting Avery’s case to you. Where there’s anything in your evidence that doesn’t support what he’s trying to prove, he’ll challenge it. Within reason, of course. But let me assure you right now that in a case like this, it’s not going to be as much of an ordeal for you as you might have feared.”

  “How come?” Lennie chipped in. He knew what Soraya was driving at, and wanted to ensure that Karen did not miss out on anything.

  “Because the key to this case is that you’re alleging that Avery did something wrong. You say he stole your candidates and your business opportunities after he left Ripple, even though he signed a contract agreeing not to do that. We’re going to trial because he denies what you’ve alleged. No one is accusing you of wrongdoing. At least not any longer. We all know how he squirmed out of the application for an interim injunction. He claimed that you made him redundant and sacked him without giving him any notice. That would have meant you were in breach of contract. But he’s dropped that argument altogether. It’s water under the bridge. I’m going to say something about that at the end of the trial, one way or the other, but you’re not going to be accused of doing anything you shouldn’t have done.”

  “Definitely not?” Karen asked.

  “Definitely not. You’re obviously going to be challenged about the restraint clause, and why you think you’re entitled to it. And you’re also going to be asked about these candidates, and why you think you’ve got any kind of personal hold over them when they only ever dealt with Avery.”

  Soraya sensed that Karen was on the verge of speaking up, and quickly finished her point.

  “Your position, of course, is that if you as a proprietor couldn’t take steps to protect your client base when one of your employees left, you’d be frightened to take on an assistant to share your workload. You’d want to keep everything to yourself. If everyone took that to its logical conclusion, it might end up killing the recruitment industry.”

  “OK. I think I can give as good as I get if I’m asked about that.”

  “Fine. So after Avery’s counsel has finished, you might find that the judge has some questions for you, and then I get the option to re-examine if I think there’s any need.” Soraya looked down at her notes. “Before I move on to Dawn, I’d better say something about the elephant in the room.”

  Karen and Lennie exchanged glances, before Lennie spoke up.

  “Squire?”

  “Exactly. Can I just assure you that this case isn’t about how you were used by a married man, and how you reacted as a normal human being when he decided he’d had enough of you after all.” Soraya knew she had to choose her words carefully. “The only way any of this is relevant is because Avery claims you’d have personally stood no chance of placing Paul Craven at BLH Solicitors. That’s his long stop argument. And Squire’s not just confirming when he offered Craven the job, he’s making a veiled hint about why he thinks Avery’s long stop argument is a good one.”

  “Well, I don’t agree with that.” Karen replied. “I might have found an alternative use for my lipstick if I’d ever come face to face with Squire again, but if his firm had wanted one of my candidates so badly, I’d gladly have dealt with one of their other partners.”

  “Fair point. And he might answer that by saying you would have been blacklisted. We just don’t know. I can only assure you that if he tries to stray into irrelevant personal issues, I’ll be up like a shot to challenge it.”

  “I really can’t get to the bottom of this.” Lennie had been mulling over a point of his own. “It strikes me as complete overkill. I could understand the candidate being called, but a law firm partner? Especially when there’s this professional ethics issue in the background.”

  “I know.” Soraya replied. “It’s obviously pretty crucial to them. Our main argument about Craven is that Avery stole a live business opportunity while he was still your employee, Karen, and still a director of Ripple. If we were only arguing that Avery had enticed him away after he’d left Ripple, I wouldn’t have expected Squire to be in the line up. As far as your evidence is concerned, you just need to stick to the straight and narrow, and spell it out that you could have introduced Craven to anyone if you’d had the chance.”

  Karen nodded. A cloud of gloom had descended over her as soon as Squire’s name had been mentioned. Soraya had noticed this straight away, and chose to move on.

  “This brings us to Dawn. As you’ll appreciate, she’s covering two main issues. First of all, there’s the way in which Avery tried to destabilise her. Then there’s what she recalls about Craven. Not forgetting the fact that she copied Avery’s desk diary too, but that’s undisputed. Let’s deal with her evidence about Craven first. I don’t think that Craven’s statement refutes any of it at all.”

  “How come?”

  “Because of what he’s not saying. He doesn’t claim that he was never in Ripple’s office that week, or that he never sent Dawn those flowers. All his statement covers is the job offer letter and the start confirmation. It would have been so easy for him to say that he’d heard about those other matters, and that they were both wrong. But for some reason, he hasn’t.” Soraya paused. “I do begin to wonder how much he’s been told about the wider background. Why we’re arguing so much about his placement. It’s going to be interesting to cross-examine him.”

  “He might have been told he’ll get sacked if he doesn’t toe the line.” Lennie intervened. “So what impact will this have on Dawn?”

  “They’ll be pressing her to concede that she couldn’t be at all certain that it was Craven in the office on that day. And I’m sure she’ll be pushed just as hard to agree that the flowers could have come from anyone. Those issues won’t give her a hard time. But then we have to deal with these text messages.”

  Soraya turned to the court bundle page where the messages had been reproduced.

  “Dawn’s deliberately described them in her statement as unwanted and hurtful. Avery’s hinted that there’s more to them than meets the eye, but he’s left it at that. And you’ve very properly told me about that incident from the past when Dawn invited him round.” Soraya paused once more. “This is all a long way away from whether Avery breached his contract and stole your clients. But we’re also alleging that he tried to destabilise her, and that it’s a pattern of general bad intentions on his part. So Dawn might be asked about whether she’d ever said or done anything that might have encouraged him to leave and take her with him. It could be embarrassing.”

  “She knows, and she’s still up for it.” Karen replied. “She might have made a mistake on that night. But it didn’t excuse what he did next. And she’s one hundred per cent adamant that she’s never thought about leaving.”

  “Good. Right, let’s run through what their witnesses are saying. Much of this is going to involve trying to catch them out…”

  Half an hour later, the exercise was complete.

  “So let’s get back to first principles. On paper, you’re as sound as you could ever be. I’d rate your chances as at least fifty per cent, possibly higher, but I wouldn’t want to give you false hopes. We all know that witnesses can underperform when they’re on the stand. And any judge can get swayed by a convincing liar. When a case goes all the way to trial, it sometimes means that it’s a genuinely hard one. But it might just mean someone’s made an error of judgment. Hopefully it’s not anyone in this room.”

  Lennie and Karen both nodded.

  “So where do we stand on settlement?”

  “No movement on t
he Part 36 offer, the five grand.” Lennie replied. “And Karen’s assured me that if she was offered an injunction plus costs – sorry, an undertaking plus costs – she wouldn’t care about the damages. Especially knowing that they probably don’t have the means to pay damages.”

  “Fair enough. The only reason I ask is so that I know what to say if we’re approached on the court steps on Monday morning. Then again, something might come up ahead of Monday. My opponent Grant Collins was in touch yesterday afternoon. I’ve never dealt with him before, let alone spoken to him, but suddenly the phone rings, I pick it up, and he comes on with ‘Hello Soraya, it’s Grarnt’.”

  Soraya deliberately lengthened the vowel and put on an exaggerated upper class tone, causing Karen to lapse into a fit of giggles.

  “So then he starts going on about how he thinks the action ought to be listed for a third day, even if it means losing next week’s slot, and how he’d have won the security for costs application if he’d been there, and how he’d have defeated the specific disclosure application if he’d been there on that as well. I just held the phone away and let him talk himself out. I was half tempted to say he’d have been every bit as good as Mr Wagstaff, but we’re not supposed to be rude to each other.”

  “I remember Grant Collins from the first hearing.” Lennie spoke up. “He did seem to have a touch of arrogance about him.”

  “He doesn’t frighten me. Not even after all these emails I’ve had from him since then, going on about the authority bundles and the written outlines we need to file by the end of the week. Anyway, I think we may have one significant home advantage that he might not appreciate.”

  “What’s that?” Karen had by now recovered her composure.