Title: The Judgment Launderers prompted by Michael Poole
Act I – The Inheritance Trap

Inciting Incident: A Canadian-born expatriate, Daniel Mercer, attends what he believes is a routine probate hearing in the Samedi Division of Jersey’s Royal Court after his mother’s passing. Instead, the presiding judge, Bailiff LeRoche (a thinly veiled figure based on Le Cocq), approves a sudden “variation order” that redistributes the estate to include an unknown beneficiary.

Discovery: Daniel realizes this is the third time his inheritance has mysteriously dissolved through court orders—always with the same law firm, Vibert & Co., at the center.

Refusal of Help: When he confronts the Bailiff afterward, the judge dismisses him, coldly telling him to “go talk to a lawyer.”

Act II – The Machine of Silence

Search for Counsel: Daniel contacts local attorneys, but one by one they withdraw after “polite warnings” from the head of the island’s Law Society, who is also a senior partner at Vibert & Co.

Alone in the Dark: The pattern is clear—legal opposition is impossible on the island. Every inquiry into the money trail dead-ends at the judgment itself.

Whistleblower: A disillusioned junior clerk leaks documents suggesting that variation orders have been systematically used for decades to launder offshore fortunes under the guise of legal legitimacy.

Threats: Daniel begins receiving anonymous calls and notices cars following him. His emails are mysteriously erased.

Act III – Escape to Justice

The Outsider: Daniel contacts a tenacious London barrister who specializes in corruption cases. She warns him that Jersey’s courts are nearly impenetrable but that the Privy Council in London still has theoretical jurisdiction.

The Conspiracy: Together, they piece together evidence showing that Vibert & Co., in collusion with judges, used probate variations to “wash” billions in suspect money from oligarchs and tax evaders.

Turning Point: The leaked files are smuggled out of Jersey, but the clerk who gave them to Daniel vanishes.

The Showdown: Daniel must decide whether to pursue an appeal to the Privy Council, risking everything—including his safety—or strike a deal with investigative journalists and international regulators to blow the scandal wide open.

Act IV – Resolution

Exposure: A British investigative reporter publishes the documents, triggering parliamentary outrage and international sanctions against Jersey’s financial system.

Betrayal: The London barrister, fearing for her own career, backs away from Daniel at the last moment, leaving him exposed.

Personal Cost: Daniel, stripped of his inheritance once and for all, faces exile, but his testimony sparks the collapse of the laundering network.

Final Note: Alone in a London flat, Daniel reflects that though he lost his fortune, he destroyed the illusion of clean hands in Jersey’s courts. The last line echoes his first meeting with the judge: “Talk to a lawyer, he told me. I did. And now the whole world is listening.”

This follows: a lone, morally cornered protagonist, corrupt legal machinery, procedural detail (variation orders, jurisdiction), and a climactic exposure that trades personal victory for systemic reckoning.

Recommendation: use Daniel Mercer as the central voice, balancing courtroom tension with investigative thriller pacing.
Next step: draft a sample opening chapter beginning with the probate hearing’s “variation order” shock.