How COULD they!

It’s a common complaint.

And although it’s often a complaint from my children (how COULD you make me clear up the kitchen, especially when I only made 99% of the mess!), or to waiters (how COULD he fail to see that my glass was empty and not refill it) and about football teams (yup!) On this occasion, I’m referring to one of the questions I’m mostly commonly asked by clients.

How COULD the other side have failed to reply to our letter.

How COULD they justify putting information in their witness statement that they’d been told was irrelevant.

How COULD they ask for YET ANOTHER extension of time/adjournment/copy of documents we’ve already provided.

When I’m responding to my kids, I might say “life isn’t fair, get used to it”, or possibly “there is no such thing as justice” or even more sarcastically “shit happens”, “sucks to be you” and “first world problems!”

But if I said that to my clients, I’d be being rude and unprofessional, and I doubt it would help.

So instead, I try to give an analogy.

Do you drive?

Yes

Do you ever break to speed limit

Erm….

Ok, well most people I know that drive have broken the speed limit at least once.  We all know that we shouldn’t, but we do, because we are late, or think the speed restrictions are too slow or because everyone else is or just because we like driving fast. And often we get away with it. Sometimes we don’t, and then there are consequences.

Law is no different. Sometimes people break the rules. They do so for many different reasons, and sometimes for no reason at all – just because they can, or because they’ve made a mistake. Sometimes it ends up not being relevant. Sometimes they will get away with it (despite my best efforts). Often there are consequences and you will get to hold the other side to account.

If you are likely to be involved in any kind of legal matter, there isn’t much I can do to prevent other parties doing things that they shouldn’t, although there are plenty of things I can do to protect you if they do. So be prepared for the fact that the other side might lie, or produce false documents or stall or any one of a number of things that you might think they shouldn’t do, and I might agree with you, but the fact that it’s wrong, doesn’t mean they’re not going to do it, anymore than I’m going to survive on only one glass of wine with my dinner.

Put simply, if you’re entering into any kind of dispute, be prepared for shit to happen!

Kleyman & Co Solicitors. The full service law firm. Speeding you through the legal system.