Ugh, the scale being off by 8 grams thing hurts to read because that's such a sneaky little problem. I've been there with baking where you keep getting the same bad result and you start blaming yourself or the recipe when really it's your gear lying to you. Three tries of gummy bread would've had me ready to throw the whole loaf across the kitchen, honestly. If it were me I'd probably weigh twice for a bit just to calm down, then go back to trusting the ratios once I know my scale is solid. The ratios aren't the enemy here, the scale is.

Wait, you hid in your closet between your shoes and that saved the whole hearing? That is wild but honestly kind of smart, because at least the judge could hear you after that. I can't believe your neighbor was running a leaf blower at 9am on a random Tuesday, like who does that? The fact that the judge laughed and put it on the record probably means she believed you, since if she was annoyed she would have just said so. That lawyer message sounds like good news to me. I'd bet it did not hurt your case at all.