I recently had a client who wanted the court to know his side of the story and he wanted his day in court. Both parties had a history before the court, and the judge had little patience for either of them.
We went in on contempt complaints. Both parties claimed the other had failed to live up to their paternity settlement. My client knew he would win his contempt, but we were uncertain he would win on the other party's contempt. The other side did not want to take the risk and was willing to settle and reimburse my client's legal fees.
My client knew there was a chance the opposing side would win its contempt but he refused to settle. He wanted the court to know he was right. We went to trial and the court said that both parties were in contempt.
The client's insistence on proving himself right caused him to lose half of the case. Instead of getting what he wanted and being reimbursed for legal fees in a settlement, he got no reimbursement.
Family cases are often very emotionally charged, but you will do yourself a favor if you focus on winning instead of focussing on being right.
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