Preface
Sometimes we cannot avoid court cases. In India sometimes they can run for many months or years. We may have to attend the hearings in different cities. Combined with this are problems with handling a lawyer, cross examinations, unexpected surprises from the opposite party and other issues.
Court cases can thus take a huge toll not only on our finances but also our physical and mental health. Sometimes we may feel helpless and fall into deep stress or depression.
However, all court cases do not have to end up this way. We can train to manage them in a more meaningful and productive way. We need to treat court cases as just part of our lives and not everything, just like the other parts of our lives. In short, we need to train how to handle court cases properly with as less stress as possible. This requires special techniques to cultivate our mental strength.
In this book, we study some of the techniques on how to handle court cases and balance our lives while dealing with them. We do not focus on the different types of court cases and legal remedies, but rather focus on the psychology of managing court cases and how to make the process less stressful. Our main focus remains civil cases between litigating parties, however some of the advice and strategies can be applied for ongoing criminal cases as well. Also, we write this book from the point of view of the litigants, rather than the lawyers or other players of the justice system.
Important Note
This eBook is a intended to be a guide for people stressed with court cases and only serves as an initial guide. As a person affected, it is advisable to additionally seek professional advice or to consult a doctor / psychologist / psychiatrist or other qualified professionals.
About the authors
Siva Prasad Bose is an author of introductory guidebooks on aspects of Indian laws. He is currently retired after many years of service in Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited. He received his engineering degree from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and has a law degree from Meerut University, Meerut. His interests lie in the fields of family law, civil law, law of contracts, and any areas of law related to power electricity related issues.
Joy Bose is a data scientist by profession and also a part-time community well-being volunteer with National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore, India. He has more than 5 years of experience in giving well-being seminars and counseling men for men's community centers in Bangalore and New Delhi, India, affiliated with a Non Governmental Organization called Save Indian Family Foundation. He has a diploma in creative hypnotherapy from Northern College of Creative Hypnotherapy, UK, received training as a well-being volunteer with NIMHANS, Bangalore, India, is a mindfulness meditation practitioner and currently undergoing a part time online master's degree in Psychology of Mental Health from King's College, London, UK. His other education consists of a PhD in Computer Science from University of Manchester, UK and a B.Eng degree in Computer Science from National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, India.
Inspiration for writing this book
This book was born out of many discussions the authors, particularly Joy Bose, had related to the court system and by counselling of a number of stressed men who are trapped in various kinds of family and property disputes in India, who were members of the men's community centers and Save Indian Family Foundation NGO. The need for a book that could give some common sense advice to help men suffering from stress of court cases particularly in India was felt by the authors, resulting in the present book.
This book incorporates teachings in stress management and suicide prevention learnt from previous trainings at NIMHANS and NCOCH, and experience out of counselling of various people and seminars related to well-being given for the Save Indian Family Foundation NGO.
Acknowledgements
In preparing this book, the authors would like to acknowledge advice from different sources including Dr. Arvind Raj from NIMHANS, the men’s community center in Bangalore, Jonathan and Ray from NCOCH (Northern College of Creative Hypnotherapy), UK and countless discussions with various people. Special thanks to Vijay Sahu who gave a number of mental health workshops and is also a trained well-being volunteer from NIMHANS.
Problems due to court cases
Court cases can lead to all kinds of problems for us. This can include not only financial problems, but also physical and mental problems related to increased stress due to the ongoing cases. In a place like India, where court cases sometimes run for years or even decades, this problem assumes even bigger proportions.
In this chapter, we list some of the types of mental problems we can have while fighting a court case. These are separate from the legal aspects of the court cases, but equally important. It is said that unless we cannot identify the problems accurately, we cannot deal with them properly. That is why we aim to first identify the different kinds of problems that can arise, aside from the direct issues related with the case being fought.
1.1 Psychology of fighting a court case
Court cases are generally brought when the litigants cannot see an easier way to resolve a particular issue. This is mainly applicable for civil court cases. In criminal court cases, the litigant might have committed an offence and is liable for justice as per the law of the land.
Therefore, by its nature, a (civil) court case is a desperate measure which is taken when alternative courses of action such as negotiation are exhausted, or the litigants have lost hope in alternative actions to achieve the desired results.
The litigants may be coming with a sense of desperation combined with a sense of over-reliance and undue trust in the justice system, and hope that it would deliver them victory. This trust may be contrary to the data that suggests that court cases, especially in India can drag on for years, and there may be widespread corruption in bureaucratic and government institutions which include police, lawyers, government offices, counsellors and mediators, as well as in the Indian court system itself.
An article in the Wire magazine in 2021 (Lokur, 2021) analyzed government data about Indian courts to find that 37 lakhs cases took 0–20 years to reach a verdict, 6.4 lakh cases took 20–30 years and about 2 lakh cases took more than 30 years. Thus, the data shows that many civil court cases take years and sometimes decades to reach a verdict.
Hence, even though the litigant may morally feel they are in the right, it may not translate to results in the actual court judgment and can take a very long time and a lot of money to reach a judgement in the first place. Further, if the judgment is unfavorable or not satisfactory to the parties, the litigants may choose to appeal in the higher courts, which can take even more time and money.
Often, the litigants may have too much trust or reliance on the court system, that cause them to file multiple cases or to keep fighting the case rather than try other means such as mediation or negotiations with the opposite party. This may be due to inexperience and ignorance of the actual court procedures and systems, and not realizing that the case may drag on for years and cost a lot of money and stress. They may not understand that even after all these years, the case may not lead to the desired outcomes which they wanted when they initially filed the court cases.
On top of the original problem that caused the court case, there is the added sadness that comes from fighting with the opponent litigants, who may be family members, friends or close acquaintances. Added to that is the pain of getting a suitable lawyer, of attending each court date, of making the case files and petitions, of dealing with new
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 10.02.2022
ISBN: 978-3-7554-0756-0
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Widmung:
This book is dedicated to all those who are suffering from stress related to fighting long drawn court cases, especially in India.