[SystemSafety] An engineer walks into a court

[Les Chambers]

Hi All

Yesterday I had cause to thank Tim Kelly for his simple ideas on writing
safety cases.

What is the claim?

What are the arguments that support the claim?

Why should we believe those arguments?

 

The skinny is this:

I complain to my local council about the barking dog next-door.

The council requires you to collect evidence in support of your complaint.

I followed the process to the letter with video and audio surveillance of
the animal.

The neighbour used another act of parliament to claim that I had caused her
to go in fear by videoing her dog in what was a public place. 

The court case was yesterday. I defended myself. The complaint was of poor
quality, containing defamatory material. I filed a 24 page affidavit using
Tim Kelly's method to rebut her complaint.

The complainant attended court and withdrew her complaint.

So thanks Tim.

 

Another thing I learned, or relearned:

The value of having, and sticking to, a checklist.

Regardless of how cool you think you're going to be.

Regardless of the quality of the paperwork you have backing up your
argument.

In court for the first time you're going to get emotional and forget
important process steps.

The unexpected can happen. Your best laid plan is thrown out of wack. In my
case it was the sudden capitulation. I didn't expect that. So I forgot to
ask the judge to quash/destroy/commit the complaint to the fires of
creation.

Like Mike Tyson said, everyone's got a plan until you get punched in the
face. I should've had a checklist.

 

Cheers 

Les

 

-------------------------------------------------
Les Chambers
Director
Chambers & Associates Pty Ltd
 <http://www.chambers.com.au> www.chambers.com.au

Blog:  <http://www.systemsengineeringblog.com/>
www.systemsengineeringblog.com

Twitter:  <http://www.twitter.com/chambersles> @ChambersLes
M: 0412 648 992
Intl M: +61 412 648 992
Ph: +61 7 3870 4199
Fax: +61 7 3870 4220
 <mailto:les at chambers.com.au> les at chambers.com.au
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