Yeah, that’s me on a Big Wheel at age 6 or 7. Check out that air! Good thing there was grass for soft landing….

Recently, my law partner and I tried a temporary injunction in a complicated business dispute. When I cross-examined the opposing expert, he answered “Yes” to most of my leading questions, as I expected he would. When the opposing expert strayed from deposition testimony, I impeached him to get him back on the straight and narrow.

Near the end, I elicited a pretty good answer. I could have stopped right there. It would have been a good cross-examination. But I thought I could ask one more question on this topic, and really nail him. There was some risk in asking the next question, as he could have tried to put a spin on his previous answers. But if he did, he’d have an awful lot of previous testimony to explain away.

It turned out the next answer was better than I could have hoped for when I was putting my cross-exam together beforehand.

Take-Away

Risk is a constant in business. Don’t avoid it—embrace it, measure it, and use it to guide your next action.

If your business ventures may require you to use the court system, whether as a plaintiff to enforce your contractual rights, or as a defendant to protect against attempts to attack your business, identify the risks and discuss them with your lawyer. He or she should be listening so that you can identify a strategy to come up with a soft landing. Just in case.