Hope for the best but prepare for the wurst.

Attention to detail is everything in my world.

There are so many things that can go wrong.

Missed deadlines.

Missing documents.

On more than one occasion, a missing witness (or two).

But still the most important detail is in the words used (or omitted) and so the importance of checking, and double checking everything is the top priority.  Which is fine when you’ve got professionals on the case, but sometimes the errors have been made before you’ve got to that stage, and whilst many have access to technology, this has actually made it worse, and not just from AI.

Predictive text isn’t new, but my clients’ ability to fall foul of it never ceases to amaze me.

I’ve just been told by a client that they will be “honest” in about 30 minutes – I believe he meant “on it” in about 30 minutes – I doubt they’re trying to suggest that the rest of the time they were going to be dishonest, but if something like that went into a message to the other side, you can see what the potential repercussions could be.

In a divorce case recently, much play was made of my client referring to the children as “mistakes”.  He insisted that he had typed “munchkins”.  I think I believe him.

I’ve been asked to “choke” things by people who meant to ask me to “check” something.  Although, in the context of the type of work I do, either could be right.

On the other hand, sometimes predictive text can be very useful – on a Friday afternoon if I start with the word “champ” it will automatically fill in “pagne” for me, thus saving me valuable drinking time.

Nevertheless, the moral of this story is that no matter what medium you’re using (email, text, whatsapp, social media) you should always proof read what you’ve said – you may feel that you don’t have the time, but it may be quicker, cheaper and less embarrassing than having to explain a mistake at a later stage.  What might start out as a harmless joke or an innocent error, could end up being an expensive lesson.

Kleyman & Co Solicitors.  The full service law firm.  Autocorrect has become my worst enema.