very nicely done and much enjoyed with my coffee this morning...

Vix

The thing that popped into my mind, reading this, was the notorious case of the Tichborne Claimant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tichborne_case

In theory, by the way, written statements from dead people can be admitted as evidence in court (at least under today's Federal Rules of Evidence in the US, but I believe there were analogues in the common law), under very restricted conditions; I'm assuming in this case it had to do with someone being creative, so that wouldn't apply.

My assumption was that the statements were dated after their deaths

Aye: "creative" in this case being a way to describe it without getting in trouble with the bar disciplinary committees.

Yeah, what Zarp said. Why would this have been an issue before she was rescued in '29? For that matter, how would they even have known someone would be resurfacing under that name years earlier? At best, it makes Birkwell look complicit in her disappearance...

It's certainly the obvious inference to be drawn. The only thing I could think of, conceivably, is that there might have been affidavits from a previous litigation involving, say, declaring somefur dead; with the subsequent death of the affiant, those affidavits would be admissible in court. The insinuation in this story, however, is that the affidavits are not only recent, but post-mortem. Being the lawyer I am, I'd want to look at the documents and check that box off.

What of you make of Moiré?

My thinking is that Mr Soaper is a showbiz lawyer, the kind who ran rampant in the 20s by playing to the media. The trouble is that he's in Canada, and therefore on unfriendly turf. If the trial had taken place in the deep south or the mid west, the misogyny of the day might well have swayed matters in his favour.