The Haunting Truth of Unknown Unknowns in Law

With Halloween around the corner, I’ve been reflecting on what haunts me in my 24 years of practicing law. Early in my career, when I’d first get a file, I’d dive in, review the evidence, the law, and consult the older lawyers in the firm. This approach was sufficient for straightforward cases, but when it came to those heavy ones or ones with numerous Charter issues, such as warrant cases, drug searches or impaired driving, it left me with a lingering sense of unease. There were always unknown unknowns—legal issues I didn’t even know I didn’t know.

For any lawyer, but especially those of us who focus on intricate areas of law, these unknowns are like spectres that follow us into each case. There’s a creeping feeling that something vital might lurk just beyond our awareness. As a young lawyer, I wrestled with this constantly, consulting senior lawyers only to hear that “the client gets the lawyer they hire, and nobody is perfect.” While this is pragmatic advice, it didn’t sit well with me. “Good enough” wasn’t enough when the client hired me because their future was at stake.

I chose to limit my practice and to delve as deeply as possible into impaired driving defence. Over time, I built up significant knowledge, a kind of armour against these unknowns. Charter issues were something one could reasonably grasp in the realm of impaired driving. The frailties of the science and police procedure were a great source of useful tools for me to help my clients. Yet even now, I still discover areas with possible defences I hadn’t foreseen. Often enough, I face fresh ghosts of the unknown. Kyla Lee, my colleague, just returned from Axion Labs, where she trained on performing lab tests on bodily samples. She’s one of the most informed people in this field, yet even she returned with new discoveries and the ever-present reminder of what she still doesn’t know.

This is the aspect of law that haunts me. The unknown unknowns are my ghosts — the shadows that can’t be banished no matter how deeply I dive into my work. And I know I’m not alone in this. Every lawyer who has ever taken a case to court with a client’s fate in their hands knows this haunting feeling.

I face these ghosts head-on, understanding that while they’ll never vanish, each case and every bit of knowledge gained dims them just a little. This pursuit isn’t easy, but it’s a challenge I accepted long ago — because, as we all know, it’s not the known that scares us most; it’s the unknown waiting in the shadows.