Is the Law Black and White?

No, the law is not black and white

I’m on the road today in between meetings and just thought I’d share something with you. I’ve heard again this morning that law is very black and white.

Actually, it’s not. If it was black and white we wouldn’t need lawyers, we wouldn’t need courts to argue over what something means.

There’s a joke going around that if you give a sentence to six lawyers and ask them to tell you what it means, you’ll get six different meanings. It’s true. So, don’t assume that law is black and white.

Yes, we try and get clear, concise decisions by putting together contracts, and agreements, and stuff like that, but if things weren’t subject to interpretation, we wouldn’t have courts and we wouldn’t have a whole bunch of lawyers that we do today. So, no, law is not black and white. It’s all shades of grey and it is subject to interpretation.

One thing I say to people is, if you’re going to get into a dispute, if you think court is the answer, you have never got better than a 50/50 chance of winning.

I’ve been involved in cases which we thought we were dead set going to win, and we’ve lost. I’ve been involved in cases where we just thought we were going to lose and we’ve won.

There’s so many things that it’s subject to on the day, or on the days of court, that you can’t predict what the decision is going to be. So don’t think law and courts are the only way, and you’re going to get justice or it’s going to turn out your way.

You can’t make those assumptions. You’ve got to look at the cost, and the time, and everything else involved. So, please keep that in mind.