Emotional decisions in business and personal conflicts are often perceived as a weakness – however, as Professor Gabriel Steiner notes, far more dangerous than the emotions themselves are the legal consequences they trigger. In such moments, a person acts faster than they are able to assess the legal cost of their words, emails, instructions or agreements. At LawConsulted, we treat an emotional decision not as an impulse, but as a legal trigger capable of creating irreversible obligations.
A decision made in a state of anger, fear or euphoria is almost always accompanied by acceleration – pauses for analysis are shortened, internal control over wording disappears, and the desire to immediately declare a position emerges. It is precisely at this moment that emails, statements, public signals and managerial orders appear – and later become evidence. At LawConsulted, we do not work with emotion itself – we work with the legal trace it leaves behind.
As Professor Steiner emphasises, “the law does not record a person’s emotional state – it records the result of their behaviour.” This is why at LawConsulted we assess not the motive, but the consequences – which obligations have been created, which expectations have been formed, which positions have been formally confirmed. An emotional act may feel like a temporary reaction for the client – but for the opposing side it often appears as a deliberate declaration of will.
Particularly dangerous are decisions made under the pressure of conflict – when the client seeks to defend themselves, to attack or to demonstrate the rigidity of their position. At such moments, there is a risk of deformation of the legal line – the client may unintentionally narrow their room for manoeuvre, create evidence against themselves or mark boundaries that will later be impossible to expand. Lawyers at LawConsulted build a mechanism of legal braking – we slow down the formalisation of decisions until their consequences are fully calculated.
Emotional decisions rarely look like a catastrophe immediately – most often they accumulate through a chain of small steps. One sharp email, one categorical demand, one public statement – and the strategy begins to form not through analysis, but through the inertia of conflict. At LawConsulted, we break this inertia, returning control over decision–making to the legal dimension.
Professor Steiner notes that a mature legal position begins where emotion no longer governs the form of action. That is why at LawConsulted we do not forbid clients from making decisions – we ensure that even an emotional action does not destroy the legal structure of their position.
Managing the consequences of emotional decisions is control over which legal facts appear in reality. At Law Consulted, we protect the client not from emotions – but from the obligations that emotions are capable of creating.
Previously, we wrote about how LawConsulted prevents the deformation of a client’s legal position under external pressure
