DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BE IN A LAWSUIT?

Many of you are reading this web page as a requirement before this firm will take your lawsuit.  We ask that you read it carefully and keep an open mind.  Whatever has happened to you is a serious matter or you would not be reading this.  However, a lawsuit is also a serious matter.  It is not automatic and it is not easy.  Please keep this in mind.

Litigation is one of the most stressful legal activities you can be involved in.  It is important that you know what you are getting into before you proceed.

Every lawsuit has two types of parties, a Plaintiff and a Defendant.  If you are a Defendant, you may not have much choice as to whether you will be proceeding with a lawsuit:  If someone sues you and you do not respond, they win.  If they win, they will most likely win a money judgment.  If they win a money judgment, they can direct the sheriff of your county to come and take your assets.  (Your home is exempt from this as long as the party that sued you was not the party that gave you a loan secured by your homestead.  Other small amounts of assets are also exempt).

If you are a potential Plaintiff, you may have more of a choice as to whether you proceed with a lawsuit.  There are a couple of very important steps that we recommend you go through before deciding to sue.

1.  Financial Decision.  Unless you are considering a suit to stop someone from doing something harmful, or a suit to make someone do something they are supposed to do, we urge you in the strongest of terms only to sue if it makes financial sense.   We also urge you to sue only if the amount in controversy is fairly large.

We HIGHLY recommend that you not sue solely because you are angry, because you want to make a point or "for principal".  This is because these types of feelings do not last.  Almost all Plaintiffs who sue for these reasons change their minds within 90 days.  At that point, it may be too late.  You are involved in a complicated lawsuit and the motivation is gone.  This can be disastrous, legally and financially.

A lawsuit is a very inefficient way to make money.  You should calculate the time, expense and stress involved and determine whether you could make the same or money applying that time and expense to other ways of making money, particularly your main job.

2.  Stress.  Lawsuits are tremendously stressful.  Your opponent has dozens of ways of angering you and causing you stress.  They will sit you down in a room with a very aggressive lawyer and ask you questions and try to twist your words.  They will likely succeed on at least a few (and maybe many) points and in the process make you feel and maybe make you look foolish, dishonest, not nice and not a good person.  They might call business associates, family members, friends and others and make them feel the same way.

Your opponent can make you produce all kinds of documents and things.  Courts are fairly lenient in allowing them to do this.  It can be very frustrating for you to have to do this.

3.  Expense.  Lawsuits are expensive.  You will have to spend a lot of money on things that seem like (and may be) a completely waste of time and money.  You and we will be helpless to prevent some expenses.

4.   You might lose.  In every lawsuit, one side loses.  It may be you.

HOW A LAWSUIT WORKS

A lawsuit starts when one party hires a lawyer who drafts up a document called a Complaint (or sometimes a Petition).  The Complaint explains to the Court why the party wants to sue.

The party that wants to sue is called the Plaintiff, because he or she is complaining about something.  PLAINTiff comes from the word comPLAIN.  The party being sued is called the Defendant.

The Defendant deserves the right to have the Complaint shown to him and to have time to respond to it.  For this reason, the Plaintiff must prove that he or she has had the Complaint handed to the Defendant.  For some reason, handing the Complaint to the Defendant in the proper manner is called "Service of Process".  When the Complaint is handed to the Defendant, it is called "obtaining service of process" or "getting service of process".  The wording is unwieldy.  Sorry.

The Defendant typically has 20 days to respond after service of process, that is, after being handed the Complaint.  He or she can answer it or make one of several types of motions.  This is where the expense starts kicking in.  Motions cost a lot of money to draft or defend and there are a lot of motions tha can be made.

Next comes discovery, where each side gets to look for evidence, either papers or things or verbal testimony.  For verbal testimony, they can make almost anyone sit at a table and answer questions from their attorney.  Again, this is expensive and very stressful.

After all that comes the trial, which can be many months or years after the start of the suit, depending upon how many motions there are and how much discovery there is.