"I love to litigate! I love to litigate!" this particular fellow was expounding one day when I visited him at his company. I looked on this recitation as a sign of psychological abnormality, but one day a few years later, this same fellow actually telephoned me to ask if I would be available for a consulting assignment.
He was making this product that included a power amplifier that used power MOSFETs in a push-pull, class-B configuration and he was experiencing a high rate of power MOSFET burn-outs. He asked if I could I look into the problem and hopefully devise a remedy.
In spite of some trepidations, I told him that I could probably be of some help and that I would prepare a consulting agreement so we could get started.
"A consulting agreement? A contract?" he asked. "Yes." I said. "It's the way I always work."
He said "We don't need a contract! It's just you and me and we both know what each other wants."
A light was beginning to dawn.
"Besides, if anything goes wrong, you have insurance, right?" and now the light was up full and bright. "No," I said, "I don't.", not bothering to mention that I could have arranged for insurance if it came to that.
He hung up on me. I never saw or heard form him again and I'd say it's just as well.
I'm quite certain that this guy just wanted to get me involved in a guaranteed-to-go-wrong situation so that he could raise a hoot-and-a-holler in order to make a claim on the insurance policy he'd supposed that I must have.
Caveat consultor.
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