That Which Is Laid Down

In linguistics, legal and loyal are considered doublets—words that come from the same ultimate source but entered the language through different paths or at different times. While legal stuck closely to the Latin lēgālis to denote statutory or formal law, loyal evolved through the French leal/loial to emphasize faithfulness or adherence to one’s obligations.

Essentially, legal is about the what—the content of the rule—while loyal is about the who—the intent of the person. You can be legal without being loyal: following the letter of the law while betraying the spirit of the relationship. But both descend from the same root—Latin lēx, most often traced to the sense of “that which is laid down.” Something fixed in place. Legal turned that fixedness outward, toward the statute. Loyal turned it inward, toward the person. The law you obey and the faith you keep are the same instinct pointed in two directions.

I have an innate obligation to share my experience. I don’t know why, but it is something that calls me.

The past year and a half has taught me more than I could have ever asked for about human nature—about the corruptibility of people acting in private versus signaling in public. One thing I want to share is something most people won’t be able to grasp until it’s too late: predatory lawsuits.

It is a dark world, where someone can wage siege warfare on an individual or their companies without a shred of evidence—or worse, with completely fabricated evidence. It happens because in most cases they know the cost of fighting exceeds the expense of paying someone off. The victims turned would-be victors stand at the threshold with their hands out. It is the ultimate grift: to plead victimhood to the state while understanding that the majority of cases settle.

Most small business owners will learn this the hard way. They’ll follow every rule and still get bled, because the people across from them were legal without ever being loyal—working the letter of the system while abandoning any faith owed to the truth.

So I intend to dive into it, because we should know how people act behind the veneer. I will talk about mistakes I made and what would have helped, and of course all the emails, motions, feigned negotiations, and judgments that were involved in my case.

If you’re interested in an extremely long-form series on the ins and outs of the legal system, comment below: “there is no such thing as a free lunch.”