There's no such thing as a free lunch

.. or at least it seems so in the context of this story. The legal aspects teach us an unexpected lesson - forget all the televised court dramas. American legal system is a rather complicated beast so do not hope anybody cares about normal people. Even more amazing, lawyers themselves are pretty puzzled with it. In particular, most of them believe that an out-of-court settlement is better even when you are the victim. None of them can know for sure how your situation will turn out but as a charging-by-hour crowd they do not need to.

Another lesson is that (probably as any government organization) the legal machine is s-l-o-o-o-w. My story is still in progress but without discernible news. It looks like I will have a choice between a settlement (i.e. paying, say, 15K and shaking hands) and going the whole way (from what I was told, the case will be dismissed because such reasons as "NY state interests are not vested in it" or "there are no precedents of this kind" - nobody cares about the substance). There is even a twist here - the Bad Guys would not be able to repeat their trick here - in CA this kind of persecution is not encouraged and people are much better protected against evil corporations.

But the lawyers and even some Americans who are privy to the situation suggest I go the settlement route. And the reasoning is the same - there are many horror stories and a settlement is supposed be a quick, dirty but ultimately cheaper, faster and more certain resolution. I am afraid in the end I will have to follow their advice on the pretty shaky ground of "Who am I to argue with professionals?". It is killing me to admit to being a puppet in a game I have no understanding of. This approach of voluntary falling a prey to extortion seems so unjust that the line between the usual mafia/government ways and the presumably better American legal system seems pretty blurred.

Psychology teaches us to consider the worst case, reconcile with it, find out that one can survive it and only then sit tight waiting for the outcome. Let's see objectively what was achieved by changing my bodyshop (as in "a GC source", not "a sweatshop for the desperate" by the way which in itself is a definite plus) with a simple Cost/Benefit analysis. In comparison with the baseline of "if I had gone to the US with the Bad Guys" I got:

• +20K in hard cash - well, money talks
  
• tangible EBGC progress (LC approved in two months after arrival, 140/485 filed two months later) without any attempts to play games, hide the lawyer or simply pretend that a GC is not the sole reason of my employment with them
• 401K plan - it's a truism that each and every year counts (and it might as well be the only way to decrease one's taxes for people without a mortgage)
  
• Location, location, location - weather, environment and future job opportunities in the SFBA hardly need any elaboration
  
• Work itself is either more interesting and diverse or at least certainly less stressful and burdensome
• All the people (including management) are really nice. And I mean _REALLY_ - even more so than in case of a direct employer. I think it is a consequence of their own life stories (e.g. a VP was prohibited from immigration for eight years .. makes you wonder how easy our lives are). Being an H1 slave is a serious mental challenge and a friendly environment significantly helps mitigate this stress.
• Freedom - my contract states "employment at will" in the very first paragraph, my manager does not play the "I am a royalty, you are my humble servant" game
  

The worst possible outcome seems to be a loss of about 20K. On the one hand, it is difficult to imagine parting with, basically, all the savings to be made this year (in my youth, people were killed for less than that). On the other hand, this would just strike out the very first item from the list above. It does not sound like a bargain but as a fair trade this might fly. Unfortunately, in such a case the Bad Guys would not only copulate with all my orifices but also make some profit. Which according to the tradition would mandate a mano a mano down the road to recover my honor.

The more I think about it the more I come to believe that life is trying to teach me how to deal with stressful situations and bad people. Probably once I have come to terms with my emotions and principles this situation will take care of itself.

Or I should find out who was that arrogant "male descendant of sandy land :)" who started it and do something according to the "an orifice for an orifice" school of thought.