A couple of years ago, I had a single court case. A man approached me, recommended by one of my clie…

A couple of years ago, I had a single court case. A man approached me, recommended by one of my clients. To put it briefly, he signed a contract with a service provider who messed up (to be fair, it was the provider), failed to complete the work, and what was delivered was subpar. I took on this case because, in principle, I wanted to turn this rather interesting case, in my opinion, into a cool success story. There were many nuances, and I love that kind of thing 🤷️. The gist was that the case fell under the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) categories, while I am deeply rooted in consumer dispute law. I wanted to prove that this case fell under the consumer dispute category, even though the contract was between two individuals, but... the party acting as the service provider was, in fact, engaged in entrepreneurial activity without forming a legal entity 🫤. All my colleagues told me it wouldn't work via the consumer dispute route, only CPC as unjust enrichment, but I still stood my ground — I could do it, and in the end, I convinced the judge that it was a consumer dispute. Specifically, I provided screenshots of the service provider's social media and some other evidence. In short, several more experienced colleagues said it was useless, but I went ahead. I wasn't so much trying to show off as a cool lawyer to the client, but rather went to prove to myself and my colleagues that I could. The claim was ultimately accepted under the Consumer Protection Law (CPL), and during the hearing, I had to defend my position. The difference between these case categories was the potential winning amount, which differed by approximately 3x 🤷️, meaning under a consumer dispute, one could claim three times more than the contract amount. The case dragged on for a long time because the respondent, whom the court notified several times, simply didn't show up. I had already gathered all my curses for the respondent (it was her). In the end, the hearing was conducted without her, the judge accepted all my arguments and evidence, and awarded all my claims in full because the respondent didn't even file a written objection. I was happy and thrilled; such a case turned out to be amazing 🔥. Almost 2 years have passed, and recently, a post from the respondent appeared in my feed, where she shared her pain 😭. It turned out she didn't show up not because she didn't care, but during that period, she had a hard life and was sent to prison. Her post touched me so much, almost to tears 🥲, and now the realization that I added more problems to her life has been tormenting me for several days. Wow, she fell into a debt pit, and now I'm adding to it with my own cases 🤦️. By the way, the client I represented ended up being a person with government contracts in the end... and yes, on this case, I earned pennies 🫤😖. I understand with my mind that this is just my work, but on the other hand, one could have simply taken the main route without these special effects 😕.