A Pro Bono Case (2)

The old woman was very grateful when Joshua approached the reception desk and explained to the receptionist that the woman was meeting him. She looked like she was about to burst into tears as he led her past the reception desk. Buggsy and Paul both watched passively and with great interest as their colleague walked past them and entered the elevator with the continually thankful woman.

Once Joshua led her to a free small client meeting room, he asked if she wanted a drink. She asked for water and Joshua excused himself and headed towards the kitchen area of Madison and Madison.

Buggsy and Paul were standing by the door as he approached the kitchen area. He chuckled when he saw them. Buggsy leant against the doorway, arms crossed with a look of disapproval on his face, while Paul was slightly behind him, struggling to unwrap a wrapper of a chocolate bar.

"What the hell are you doing?" Buggsy questioned him as he shifted past the man and went straight to the fridge.

"What do you mean?" Joshua asked as he grabbed a couple of plastic bottles of water from the stocked fridge. He shut the door and when he looked over at his two colleagues, he noticed that Paul was still struggling. He tucked the two bottles between his arm and his body and motioned for Paul to pass the chocolate bar over.

"What're you doing with her?" Buggsy continued, pointing with his thumb in the direction of the meeting room.

"If you were in her position," Joshua paused as he only just managed to rip the chocolate bar wrapping before handing the snack back to Paul, "wouldn't you want someone to at the very least listen to you?"

Joshua patiently waited for Buggsy to move out of the doorway and walked past the two men out of the kitchen area, he turned around to face them as he walked back towards the meeting room and assured them, "it's not like I'm saying that I will be taking up her claim."

When he opened the glass door to the small meeting room, the old woman greeted him back happily and thanked him when he gave her the bottle of water. She had sat on one of the comfortable armchairs and he reached out his hand and introduced himself to her. As he sat down on another armchair that faced her, she introduced herself.

"Thank you for seeing me today. I hope I'm not bothering you from your busy day," the woman started apologetically, "my name is Marjorie Young, and I need your help."

Joshua nodded and crossed his leg, "I can't promise you anything yet, Mrs Young, but I will listen to you and decide the next steps afterwards."

The old woman nodded quickly. Truthfully, all she wanted was someone to listen to her. All the other law firms had just refused to listen to her outright and she was starting to get desperate.

"What seems to be the problem?" Joshua asked open-endedly and allowed the woman to lead the conversation.

She looked down at the water bottle that she held tightly in her hands as she gathered her muddled thoughts as best as she could.

"I'm sure you've heard of the recent series of incidents that happened on several Gould Constructions work sites," Marjorie glanced at the lawyer.

He thought about it for a few seconds and slowly nodded, "I think I've seen some news stories about it on the news…"

The woman opened her mouth to start talking again, but her voice got caught in her throat as her emotions flared. She cleared her throat and drank a little bit of her water. After a moment, she managed to start talking again.

"My…son, Adam," her voice quivered at the mention, "works — used to work for Gould Constructions. He was part of the team working on the site of the latest accident."

"From two weeks ago, right?" Joshua asked for clarity.

She nodded.

"At first, I saw it as what they said it was. An accident. A terrible accident," the woman breathed, "however, after a while, I remembered that Adam had started to act weirdly in the last few days before the accident.

"He was acting moody and secretive. He still lived at home, but only because housing has been expensive lately and he'd been saving up to get his own place for a while. And whenever both of us were not at work, we would be able to catch up and talk about what we'd been up to lately."

Joshua watched Marjorie closely as she slowly set the scene.

"I really liked how we had that independent…closeness. We knew that we had each other to talk to if we had a particularly bad day at work, and I enjoyed his company, especially after his father died years ago. He helped with the housework and even helped me pay the rent with a portion of his pay.

"One day, something was different," Marjorie said quietly. She took a moment and attempted to calm down as she started to hyperventilate as her story got closer to its unfortunate end.

"While we were both home one day, cooking dinner, Adam seemed so sullen. Something happened at work that must have bothered him, but instead of venting he said that it was nothing. That he was fine.

"I didn't believe him, of course. He was visibly so shaken up, but no matter how I approached the subject to him, he just shut me down — gently — but he refused to talk to me."

Joshua started to shift in his seat. Nothing that Marjorie was talking about seemed like something he could use to help. Maybe he shouldn't have brought her into the meeting room and given her false hope.

"That was until the day before the accident occurred, he finally relented and started to open up to me," Marjorie paused and looked down at the bottle in her hands again.

Joshua noticed tears start to drop onto her top and he jumped up and grabbed the tissue box that rested on a side table on the opposite side of the room, just out of Marjorie's reach. She thanked him and grabbed several sheets of tissues and rested the box on her lap as she wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

"Take your time, Mrs Young," Joshua assured her in a soft voice. She appreciated his concern and thanked him again.

Once her emotions had settled once more, she continued her story, "it was a Sunday and to my surprise, he actually decided to join me in going to church."

"So, you're religious?" Joshua asked as he straightened up in his seat. Now fully attentive to her story.

"I am, but Adam, not really." She answered.

"So, what happened that Sunday?" Joshua prompted.

"I was so happy. Adam hadn't gone to church with me since he graduated high school. I was so happy and so proud, but on the way home…" her voice trailed off and Joshua leant forward in anticipation.

"…he broke down. He mentioned that he noticed something at work and that when he raised the issue to his supervisor, he was brushed off. It really bothered him and even though he didn't tell me everything, from how carefully he worded everything he was saying, I had the inkling that it had something to do with site safety and that he might have been warned not to reveal anything outside of the company."

Joshua nodded. Several ideas started to form in his head as he thought about what he would do if he was tasked with a case like Marjorie's story. He studied mostly as a criminal defence lawyer, but he knew of colleagues that were corporate litigation lawyers who could help should the case make it to a judge and court.

"You think the accident happened because of some sort of safety issue at the site that the company simply ignored?" Joshua clarified.

"I think so," the woman started to sob and mumbled to herself, "oh poor Adam."

"I think I remember that three people tragically died in the incident, right?" Joshua thought out loud.

Marjorie nodded and said, "Adam and two of his co-workers were caught in the steel-frame collapse, yes."

"Do you know much about the families of the other two workers? Do you think they would be willing to come in and speak to me about the accident?" Joshua asked earnestly.

In between sobs, the woman nodded slightly, "I- I think so."

Joshua nodded as he continued to think deeply about the story Marjorie just told him.

"Does this mean that you'll help me?" Marjorie asked innocently.

Joshua glanced at the woman and when he saw the despondent look in her eyes, an image of his father's eyes showing a similar desperateness on the night that his mother was announced dead haunted him.

He shut his eyes tightly and faced down. He breathed deeply to calm himself.

He remembered himself verbally promising his hospital-bedridden mother that he was going to help people when he grew up.

He cleared his throat as he looked back up at the old woman in front of him. He tried to look as confident as he could to assure her.

"There is definitely an angle we can tackle it with," he said slowly. He was grateful that his voice sounded strong as he talked because he was extremely nervous.

"Let's take this a step at a time, but I can at the very least look into it for you."