JOHN FYTIT DIES, LEAVES A BOOK IN HIS WAKE

ONE of the legal profession's favourite 'agony aunts' unexpectedly passed away this month, leaving holes in hearts across the nation and, of course, a book available for purchase.

John Fytit (pronounced 'Fight it'), a fictional character created by Brisbane Lawyer Paul Brennan, croaked at age 51 following a series of complications with his autobiography; namely that doctors couldn't seem to prove he had one.

Fytit's journey from embittered sole practitioner to liberated legal advisor is now posthumously celebrated with the release of I'll Have the Law on You: The Selected Letters of John Fytit, in consolation to the biography which may have indeed extended his life. 

One unidentified Law Society president commented on the tragic passing of Fytit, whose breadth of legal advice covered many fields, including pre-court laundry best practice with the famous exclamation: "I have seen cases lost for the want of a trouser press."

"He was variously known as a Legal Agony Aunt, and Legal Agony Ombudsman, his ambition to be a Legal Agony Commissioner was cut short," says the president in a recent release issued by Brennan.

"His 30 years' experience in legal misfortunes equipped him to give the public the legal advice they truly desired."

Brennan, the creator of other titles including 101 Reasons to Kill All the Lawyers, also fondly recalls Fytit's endless stream of witticism against various Ombudsmen during the early days of his international career.

"In the early years, Fytit's outbursts against Ombudsmen were widely reported but probably no more than professional jealousy on his part," says Brennan.

"Ombudsmen found Fytit's approach amusing but lacking bureaucratic rigour; it was only when Scandinavian governments started to bypass Ombudsmen and refer matters directly to Fytit that Ombudsmen resolved to act.

"We are not sure what happened after that."

I'll Have the Law on You has been heralded as 'funny, but not so funny that the busy lawyer needs to bother reading it.'

Keeping with the tone of ambivalence, Brisbane Legal hopes lawyers out there enjoy reading the book. Or not.