The Anatomy of a Law Suit part 1 of 7
Twice this last week I had clients who were served with law suits tell me to "just write them a letter." Them, being the opposing attorneys. It's always worth trying to settle law suits early, and occasionally this can happen right away. But opposing counsel rarely go away because I tell them my client is right and their client is wrong. And they are not supposed to. But these two requests to "just write a letter" made me realize that a lot of people don't know what happens in a law suit, so over the next few days, let me tell you (and it isn't pretty, so those of you with weak stomachs may want to read this with your hands over your eyes)
First, let me give you some background on my prejudices. As an attorney, I like part of the litigation process. But I hate for my clients to become involved in law suits. It's my belief that there are usually no winners in business law suits. Oh, I know that you hear about these big law suits in the news where someone wins upteen billions of dollars. But you hear about these big law suits in the news because.... they are NEWS. They are not the norm.
The norm is that even if you win, you will win less than you think you should have, and it will take way more time and energy than you ever imagined. I used to be a small claims court judge and I will urge litigants to settle saying "I can guarantee one of you will leave unhappy, and I am perfectly capable of making a ruling that with have both of you leaving unhappy." And that goes double for "real" court where the costs are horrendous and the time involved is unbelievable.
Having said that, what does a law suit look like when you cut it open.
A law suit usually (and let me say this, everything here should be read with a large dose of "usually" "often" "normally" because litigation attorneys are creative) starts with a complaint.
The complaint lists the plaintiff's complaint (funny how that works) and is written by the plaintiff or his or her attorney. It doesn't have to be true. It doesn't have to make sense. I can be named in a paternity suit. Good attorneys will check out their client's story (maybe) but no judge reads the complaint. In California it's just filed with a clerk who will issue a summons, and then the complaint and the summons have to be served on the defendant.
Here's where it gets complicated. So I'll hold off till the next post to get into what happens next.
