I have learned my law from movies and my medical law from the characters of the lawyer and Bob Kelso in "Scrubs." I learned that hospitals don't want to be sued.
I have learned that if a trial attorney introduces a subject or makes a comment that seem to have nothing to do with the matter at hand, the opposition or the judge may ask that person to explain the relevance of what was just said. So, in trying to show why the butler didn't do it, the defense attorney might state," My client is a dachshund owner." If that doesn't seem to relate to innocence or guilt, the prosecutor might say, "Your honor, relevance?" If the judge also feels that the comment might be off the track, he might follow with "Yes, counselor, what is the relevance of being a dachshund owner?"
Whenever we are exploring the relevance of one factor or variable to another, we may be getting into deep waters or simply into nutty waters. Some theorists say that the occurrence of event B is relevant to event A if the probability of A occurring in the absence of B does not equal the probability of A when B occurs. In other words, if B has no effect one way or the other on A, B is not relevant to A. This is much the same thing as saying that A and B are independent.
When someone asks for an explanation of relevance, the explanation itself may contain statements that also seem irrelevant. Thus, the possibility of an infinite regress lurks.
Relevance is similar to determining meaning in that both depend on people's knowledge, sensitivity and ability to articulate their ideas. I might be some sort of genius or psychic intuitive that senses a connection that others don't, but unless I can explain that connection persuasively, my insight will not be accepted by others.
I was impressed by Robert Morley's confession that he could not answer the question What were the original 13 American colonies?. He stated that as a substitute he offered a list of the 12 Apostles. Confidence men and flippant wits may try at times to assert a relevance that is lacking but establishing presence or absence of relevance is not cut and dried. The relevance may be there but not make it into our understanding.
