In this article, I will explore the media of law in popular legal culture as an arena for alternative legal practices. This will be done through an analysis of one of its principles, the principle of "your words against mine", i.e. examples of states of exception that declare a communicative stand-still between two parties on the basis of the conflicting character of their contested accounts. Being able to define a conflict in terms of "your words against mine", which has no precise counterpart in official legal theory, is accomplished through a discursive strategy cultivated in the popular legal culture. From a partial point of view it can also be used in order to gain an advantage in a conflict.