Remember “fuzzy math” during the George W. Bush-Al Gore presidential debate?  There now is considerable social media attention over the past few months on “girl math,” “boy math,” and even “mom math” to explain how people justify impulse shopping and rationalize poor mental math calculations. It is all part of the broader idea that those mathematical concepts we all learned in school may not always have real world application.

One math concept that still rings true in the legal profession: always “show your work.” Notwithstanding the talent displayed by many attorneys in mastering the math presented in the tax code, most attorneys are stuck with different applications and explanations of simple equations impacting the legal profession. Among the more mysterious math corollaries which we encounter in our profession and with clients are:

• The Cost of Litigation < The Emotional Angst of Litigation
• Brief ≠ Short
• Obtaining a Judgment for $50,000 ≠ Payment for $50,000
• 15 Minute Hearing ≈ 4 Hours of Actual Time
• Total Time Spent Handling a Case > One-Third Recovery
• In Family Law, ÷2 ≠ 50%
• Litigators Can Only Achieve a 100% Success Rate if They Don’t Try Cases
• Being In The Office For 12 Hours May Only Result In 5.8 Hours of Billable Time
•  .1 < 6 minutes
• Having 30 Days To Respond To Discovery Requires a 45 Day Extension
• No Matter the Clarity of the Problem, “It Depends” is Always The Answer

If you have any other examples of Legal Math, feel free to email them to us so that we can add to our list!

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