Bureaucracy has a special talent for trapping people in unfavorable situations.

So when a young father trying to rebuild his life was told by a judge he needed a bigger apartment for weekend custody, but the job center refused to approve one because he lived alone, he was stuck in a paperwork standoff.

That’s when he realized if he wanted to get anywhere, he would have to play it tough.

Keep reading for the full story.

Forbid me to have a bigger apartment so that my daughter can visit me

About 13 years ago, the son of a friend of mine was in the process of getting his life under control.

Own apartment again, registered at the job center, night school in the morning, and so on.

He had quite a few personal issues.

His main problem was his ex-girlfriend. Together they had a daughter.

In order to be able to have his daughter with him at the weekend, the Judge asked for another room in his apartment.

But this wouldn’t be as easy as it seemed.

The job center refused the larger apartment since he lives alone.

In the normal way, he would never have gotten the larger apartment approved.

Or only after a long struggle.

This threatened to get him into trouble with the court.

He probably would have gotten into trouble with the Judge since he wasn’t trying to find a larger apartment.

That’s how authorities are.

But that’s when a friend had a helpful suggestion.

There is one crucial trick that makes the whole system work for you.

Authority against authority.

That’s exactly what I suggested to him.

In desperation, he declined, with the usual phrases, “It doesn’t work,” “It’s too complex,” etc.

But the rest of his family urged him to give it a try.

Luckily, his mother was there too.

She persuaded him to do so.

So I gave him the framework of the letter.

It went something like this:

Dear Judge,

I am happy to accommodate the desire to take a larger apartment.

Unfortunately, my case manager from the job center refused me the larger apartment.

Best regards,

Son of Friend

After writing it, I drove with him to the Judge and saw how he had put in the letter.

It was late at night.

Surprisingly, this worked wonders.

The next morning, he got a call from the job center that he could look for a bigger apartment.

The letter of approval would come in the next few days.

I would have loved to have attended the phone call from the Judge to the job center.

Bureaucracy moves slow — until it’s embarrassed.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter cosigns this as an effective strategy.

On the other hand, it can be risky to mess with a judge.

It’s funny how living standards change over time.

In the end, he didn’t fight harder, he fought smarter.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.