JimStone wrote: ↑13 Oct 2020, 15:44
Anyone who has been to court in any capacity other than as one of the legal bods - and even then it's not a given - will appreciate that you very seldom come out looking good even when you are wholly innocent. It's a crappy place to be and not somewhere you want to end up if you can at all help it. Not the best way of sorting a dispute in my opinion.
Spot on mate. I won in family court earlier this year in a case i brought against my girls' mum and I would not rush back to repeat the experience. Thankfully i represented myself and kept the costs to a minimum, the other side spent a fortune and still lost. Me and my girls won, the solicitor for the other side certainly won as well, at £200 an hour. I saw first hand how solicitors will egg on their client pointlessly, and make things unnecessarily malicious. I walked away winning, to the solicitor it is just another lucrative case, but my ex lost badly and came off far worse than if she'd just taken part in the mediation process that you have to try first, before court. I would avoid a commercial dispute in court at all costs, if I could. You have to be totally at peace with the idea that the Judge is going to make a decision for you, which is binding, which you may not like. You also have to get it through your head that the Judge won't see the situation as you see it. Court is indeed a crappy place to be. One thing is for sure, one of these two parties is going to have a life changing experience, for the worst, when the Judge makes his/her decision. Brinksmanship gets you into court convinced you'll win but they are called Judges for a reason and they dance to their own tune.