ARE WE REALLY JUST GOOD STORY TELLERS?

After years of trying to avoid fully joining the 21st century, I seem to have relented over the last while, first I began to really communicate via email, then I got myself an iPad and an iPhone, then I joined Facebook and now we’ve been working at getting our web site up and running. It’s been a bit odd, working on the web site; it has forced me to re-examine why I practice Family Law and why I enjoy it. Normally we are just so busy doing the work, we don’t have the time to reflect on what and why we choose to do it.

It has reminded me that part of what I most enjoy, is meeting with the clients and listening to them tell their story and explain their circumstances, and then to begin to work on how best to retell their story to the Court. Sometimes the story telling is easy, the client knows what their story is and what has to be told; but more frequently the client is so overwhelmed by what is happening to them, that they don’t know where to start their story, what to share and what not to share or how to sort out the important facts and the less important facts.

I never really thought about it, but a lot of what we do is story retelling, to retell the client’s story, so that the other party or a Judge may better understand and appreciate the situation, problems and facts. Frequently it’s not just what we say but how we say it.