The 6 Types of Lies People Tell Their Advisers and Themselves

Some people will do and say things that they wouldn’t normally do when faced with a pressing legal and financial matter. Take for instance, lying. When some people are stressed, they tend to lie. Not everyone mind you, but when they do, these are the 6 types of lies people tell their advisers, listed here in no particular order of severity:

1. Denial: Being in deep denial is a form of lying to oneself. For example, when a client believes his commercial building still has a 2008 value in 2014, and won’t sell it for the current fair market value, despite the very real risk that the bank will take it back from him, leaving him with less, if any equity, than had he sold it himself. Unfortunately, a hard dose of reality is the necessary cure.

2. White Lie: However diplomatic, there is no place for “a white lie” between a client and their adviser. There is no place for a client to be “well -intentioned.” When negotiating legal strategy, it’s important to be well -informed. So go ahead and ask questions, request clarification, and understand the far -reaching consequences of one’s decision. Who cares what anyone else thinks.

3. Plausible Deniability: Is being in a state of being capable of being denied. For instance, a person knows that they may have a legal issue, but they refuse to open or read a legal notice, certified letter, or legal complaint in order to say that they didn’t know there was a problem. They think that by avoiding the subject altogether, they relieve themselves of the responsibility to know or learn the truth or their alleged obligations.

4. Misleading by Omission: Purposely omitting an important fact with the intent to allow someone to believe something is true or false is a form of deception that once discovered, only creates more problems later on. For example, knowingly failing to disclose financial information on a bank loan application is a form of loan fraud, and has serious legal consequences.

5. Bald Face Lie: A bald faced lie is an unmistakable, brazen and intentional distortion of the truth with no intention to ever clarify the facts. This brings to mind the adage that “there are 3 sides to every story… yours, mine, and the truth.” What we believe to be the facts of a particular event are far different than what we know are not the facts of the same event.

6. Embellishment: This is when one makes a description of an event more interesting by exaggerating the details of a story. Some lawyers have been accused of this. I, of course, would argue otherwise.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *