A Cutting Story

Hi madforfire. I found your post titled “A Cutting Story” very interesting. The prospect of a man in a custody battle asking for trial by combat is, I agree, quite ridiculous.
To be completely honest, I can’t believe David Ostrom is serious in this request. I have heard of attorneys bringing up ridiculous things in court in an attempt to highlight how ridiculous a situation is, and this may be the case here. You do mention that Mr. Ostrom’s hope is to meet “Mr. Hudson’s absurdity with [his] own absurdity,” so I would like to read more details into the case to see what absurdity Mr. Hudson displayed to make Mr. Ostrom retaliate in such a manner. It could be a tactic to gain more time in the trial too. The article stated, “He asked the Iowa District Court in Shelby County to give him 12 weeks ‘lead time’ in order to source or forge katana and wakizashi swords.” Even if the judge doesn’t allow this 12 weeks, he has given his team time by even bringing this ridiculous request up.
It is crazy to consider that Mr. Ostrom was able to find a loophole like this in the legal system, which was used “as recently as 1818 in British Court.” Another possibility is Mr. Ostrom was just fed up with the situation and out of answers. In a professional setting, making ridiculous arguments makes you look like you are admitting defeat.
As a response to the argument of the duel possibly ending in death, Mr. Orstrom said that trial by combat was ended by one party yielding to the other. The article also mentioned that “he wants to proceed with a ‘blunted practice style’ of sword play.” It seems to me that Mr. Orstrom has more of a sense of humor than we are giving him credit for.
I wish I could sue for a trial by combat to whoever gave me my condition.