I agree with you 100 %. The one thing we as lay people can do to protect ourselves though is to be humble, I.e. Not assume that we are experts and know what th

I agree with you 100 %. The one thing we as lay people can do to protect ourselves though is to be humble, I.e. Not assume that we are experts and know what the rules are, or that words mean more than they do. It's a little like programming and requires literal frame of mind that doesn't run away. "Perpetual" is a time dimension and doesn't have a "no take backsies" dimension but our mind puts it there :). I see it all the time where people undertake actions or share advice or give instructions based solely on their intuitive sense on how law "should work" or "what makes sense" (while being blissfully unaware of this bias and assumption). As a personal example I went through a difficult divorce a decade ago. I read up on family law and talked to a lawyer. The divorce was made that much more difficult by my senior family members incessantly and continuously insisting upon things that were catastrophically wrong, but made perfect intuitive common sense to them (e.g. My dad spent 6 months telling me that my wife did not have any rights on the apartment that was in my name and I paid for. But it was marital home and in our jurisdiction she 100% totally absolutely had legal claim upon it. And million things like that).