I remember a court case that a company (C), was involved in.  They were providing software for an organisation (TO) which didn’t think that they had done a good job and the statistics (which was the point of the software) weren’t good.  C wanted their money, of course.

It was a difficult case in that it didn’t seem so straightforward and TO had hired an independent expert to justify their defence.  In a way they were right, but C’s contact for this piece of software was an external consultant to TO that they had hired for that purpose.

At the end of the day, TO weren’t happy with what they had and C believed that they had done everything this external consultant had asked.

The case was in front of, what is now called I understand, a District Judge.  The case went on for several hours until, at one point, TO made the argument that, at a certain point in time, they were not aware of a certain piece of information.

Luckily, C was able to find an email, before the date in question, from or to the external consultant, clearly showing that TO knew this information – or rather that the external consultant knew.

On producing this email to the DJ, TO’s case almost immediately collapsed and C won.

Why I think that the law can be such a lottery is that, if TO had not mentioned a specific date and C had not had a copy of that email to hand, the case would have gone in favour of TO, I believe. One can almost felt sorry for TO, in that, at the end of the day, it was their external consultant that was really to blame.

I’ve watched or been involved in several cases where this kind of very small, almost insignificant piece of information, can be the turning point of any court case.

The problem with, I would say, about 50% of court cases where both sides honestly believe they are in the right, is that this turning point can equally be the winner or loser for you.  My advice would always be, unless you have an absolutely cast-iron case/defence, don’t go to court.  Avoid it like the plague.

Even if your case/defence is cast-iron, expect the unexpected at all times.  Keep everything as simple as possible, don’t have too much paperwork.  Don’t assume that everyone will see how right you are – they often won’t.  If you think it’s only right that you should get a fair hearing, expect that you won’t.  If you need something from the other side, assume that they won’t deliver it on time, if at all.

And then, after all those things, prepare a defence or attack with all those things in mind.  If you can’t do it that way, then you have as good a chance of winning as of losing.  And you just can’t say ‘it’s not fair’ or ‘it’s biased’.  It’s the way it is.