Q&A: Legal claim: exaggerating arguments in order to create balance
Legal claim: exaggerating arguments in order to create balance
Question
I am going into a long and complex medical malpractice trial. A lawsuit against a doctor who is represented by an insurance company.
My lawyer is urging me to inflate and magnify the damage claims.
I do not want to lie or steal.
However, it would be a bad idea to state the exact truth, since the insurance company (and probably the judge) starts from the assumption that the plaintiff is lying and exaggerating, and therefore itself downplays the severity of the problem.
He thinks there is no choice but to enter into these manipulative arm-twisting tactics in order to get *what I deserve*, and not less.
In your opinion, from the standpoint of Jewish law, am I permitted to exaggerate my claims and inflate symptoms in order to balance things out?
Of course, it is never possible to be perfectly precise and create an exact balance, in light of the complexity
Answer
It is hard for me to answer you. On the face of it, it is clear that this is forbidden. You should present data backed by documents, and then there is no room to claim that you are inflating things. But I am not familiar with this field, and if they are telling you that there is simply no way to present data that the judge will accept, perhaps there is room to be lenient. I cannot answer without knowing more about the situation.