Ten Tips for Staying Sane in Court
Here are some suggestions that will help you keep your mind clear and calm during a lawsuit.
Going to court initially evokes strong emotions: anxiety if you're the one being sued; hope and excitement if you're the one bringing the case. But once the battle begins, the court experience commonly causes both sides to experience another set of emotions -- anger and depression.
Here are ten tips to help you avoid these states of mind.
1. Don't Take Your Rights Too Seriously
Our culture often leads us to believe that we have highly valuable rights and that every minor violation of these rights means we can go to court and be awarded a pot of gold. Not only does this rarely happen, but going into court with this worldview usually means that if we are unsuccessful in vindicating our "rights" by getting a big judgment against the other side, we feel doubly betrayed by the system. It is more conducive to long-term sanity to forget about "rights" and to think instead of our true needs. In this context, it may help if you remember the old Gypsy curse: "May you be involved in a lawsuit in which you know you are right."
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