Africa-Press – Zambia. All Lawyers are Good/Bad:My Sunday true story. In 2013 I sacrificed k250,000 of my mid term MP gratuity to empower Matero youths with metrocabs that were to be run by a cooperative type company for a revolving fund to acquire more cabs for more youths.
Mid stream l found myself in some political ‘civil wall’ and some cabs got attacked and burnt by internal cadres of a then rival camp. Other drivers thereon took advantage of the youth empowerment company and bolted with the yellow cabs which they later illegally repainted to white or so.
I lost out emotionally on the project and so did majority Matero youths. It turns out my loss was not to end there. One AWOL driver happened to have later marginally bashed someone’s car. The owner of the car decided not to sue that driver but sue me because ‘it was well known fact that Miles Sampa was the main architect of metro cabs’.
I thought this was some straight forward case as I was neither the driver nor the registered owner of the Vits. As it turns out the acquaintance lawyer I asked to represent me was mediocre. Over a period of 8 years he hardly showed up for the case as enshrined in the judgement and when he did, hardly put up a solid legal defense. He would update me here and there asking for money for gas to the court case or toner to print paperwork.
2021 around election campaign period he said we had lost the case and ‘just negotiate payment terms’. I was shocked but too busy with campaigns and told him to do the best for me.
A month after elections next was court order for bailifs to pounce for recovery of K250,00 to the guy whose car was bashed by a metro cab driver that bolted with the car. My lawyer even had the audacity to claim ‘don’t you know you PF are not liked by the Judiciary’. Nonsensical statement of course. At this point I ‘fired’ this mediocre lawyer and ran to some expensive well known good lawyer. He tried to Apeal out of time but without much success.
Through a compromise consent judgement, I have had to folk out K58,000 monthly last 6 months and just paid the last installment a few days ago. Turns out ‘Consent judgment’ is a term I generally so despise but thats another true story for another day. For now It’s good to breathe again and share this metrocab ‘debt’ story so others can learn something from it for their own good.
Whatever you do, don’t find yourself inside the Courts of Law. If you do, get a damn good lawyer but be prepared to pay through the nose bigly. Even their water, red bull or oxygen air during the court session will cost you and not them.
A mentally lazy dispositioned Lawyer is a No no. I almost reported herein one to LAZ but thought to leave it to others he will disappoint sooner than later to deal with him (or her).
So K250,000 of my parliament gratuity spent to buy the metrocabs for Matero youth and 8 years later spent or lost another k250,000 of personal money. It’s not even the end as the claimant has since sued for interest and costs.
So now me asking God why I must be punished in this format for my then well intended Ubuntu gesture to help the less privileged youths of Matero. The truth of my torment however traces back to the day I asked that convenient good/bad lawyer to handle this case for me.
A bad lawyer is good because they will cost less but bad as they will lose you the case. Conversely a good lawyer is good because they will win you the case but bad because they will cost you an arm and a leg. There is a good reason why ZIALE temunobe.
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