"I‘m sorry." These are quite simply the two greatest words in the English language. Sure, there’s other words that are functionable, but few other phrases contain such power and efficiency as hearing "I’m Sorry."

As a newlywed, I learned quite quickly that, "she’s always right", and even more quickly that the easiest way to diffuse a situation is to say, "I’m sorry." It used to make my wife even more mad when I’d apologize during the middle of a "heated argument." As our angers soared, using an apology, and an acceptance of wrongful behavior quite easily ended the argument. What’s more, we often found that we were able to communicate much better if we had someone who was willing to take some initial blame and apologize.

Like my fights at home, sometimes legal issues could resolve themselves quickly if one person willingly accepted blame for his/her behavior, and found a way to compromise. I’ve heard several clients tell me that all they really wanted, before filing a lawsuit, was for the defendant to accept responsibility.

I recently dealt with an issue involving two people whose feelings and pride were injured after a falling out. Neither party was willing to back down, and both sides lost money, friendship and time from the event.

I’ve often wondered, as we hear so much talk about "tort reform", how much money would be saved by insurance companies, medical professionals, and individuals by just acknowledging a problem, and apologizing for the outcome. Real tort reform may just be a matter of exercising a little humility first.