Things to Consider Before Filing a Lawsuit

If you’re lucky, you will go your entire life without needing to be involved in any kind of court case outside of jury duty. However, even if you turn out to be this lucky, it still won’t hurt to understand exactly when you should consider filing a lawsuit against someone who may have harmed you.

Whether you’re already considering the key differences of strict liability vs negligence or are simply examining your options, read on to see when filing a lawsuit is and isn’t worth it.

Consider Collection

Lawsuits are expensive, take a long time and are stressful for all parties involved. These are all reasons why deciding when to and not to sue is vital, but there is one consideration that should probably come before the rest: can you be paid? If the jury/judge decides that you are in the right and should receive compensation, does the other party have enough money to pay you?

If the answer to this question is likely “no,” then the suit isn’t worth filing. Once the case ends, the burden of collecting your winnings falls on you and your lawyers. While you both have incentives to collect (the lawyer wants to be paid for their efforts and you need to pay your bills), you’ll both be kind of screwed if there’s nothing to take.

Typically, if a business appears to be failing, you’re leveling a hefty suit against an individual or the person is clearly struggling to survive as is, it may be better to just eat the costs and move on with your life.

If the defendant is a large business or a well-off individual, then you absolutely could collect and have therefore passed this first hurdle. However, that doesn’t mean you have the makings of a court case yet; it simply means that everyone who needs to be paid would get paid eventually.

Case Strength

Deciding your case’s strength is where things get a bit trickier. Each case is different so what may make one case a sure-fire success may not even be considered in another. Luckily, nearly all lawsuits have one thing in common that makes determining a case’s strength just a bit easier: damages.

You have to prove that you have been damaged in most cases and that these damages can be remedied or at least eased a bit with money. You also need to prove that the damage was the fault of the defendant in some way, whether that be through direct intent or negligence. This is why leaving paper trails is so important; if you make a claim but have no evidence to prove it, you have no case.

However, if your email is overflowing with conversations detailing exactly what needed to be done and you have the bills to prove that the job wasn’t done the way it should have been, then filing should be a much more serious consideration for you.

Negotiation Tolerance

A lawsuit will test your patience in many ways, and the perfect examples are settlement offers and mediation. The legal system is a slow and stressful beast, so many judges will urge or force both parties to try mediation or negotiate a settlement.

Many contracts include an arbitration clause that prevents you from filing a lawsuit and instead forces mediation. The point of these causes usually is to try and make it more frustrating and difficult to collect damages you’re owed.

While mediations are frustrating and may prove unproductive, settlements tend to be the opposite. Most cases actually end like this. Typically, the plaintiff will receive a significant chunk of change so long as they don’t talk about the case or settlement to the public and the defendant can go on without admitting fault.

However, it can also tell you what the opposition’s intentions are. If they continuously lowball you on the amount they’re willing to pay, you may need to apply more pressure to get a favorable outcome. If you can handle this, then you can handle a lawsuit.

Consult Lawyers

Even when you feel you have an airtight case, it doesn’t mean anything if a lawyer doesn’t agree. It can also be difficult sometimes for the layperson to truly understand their chances of success. Before you make your final decision either way, contact a lawyer and get their professional opinion.

The best-case scenario is when they’re so confident that they tell you they’d file the case if they were in your shoes. The worst that happens is they tell you to simply forget about it. Either way, you’ll be more confident in your decision with a professional’s opinion made clear.