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Litigation
With the cautions of the above paragraph in mind, at times you will need to go to law to vindicate your rights. Despite the cost and uncertainty, at times going to law will be the wisest business option available. At times, you may have a responsibility and morale duty to go to law to protect your rights and the interests of others: typically the interests of your employees and those of your family. Civil litigation (meaning non-criminal) is permeated with business judgments. You can spend money investigating and developing evidence to present to the court, sometimes referred to as out-of-pocket expenses. Some such efforts will only increase your chance of success a little, some a great deal. Therefore, if more money is at stake, the parties will tend to spend more money developing evidence that is only marginally helpful. You need to discuss with your attorney how much money you want to spend developing such evidence. These expenses may include the cost of paying a graphic artist to create a model, the cost of a photographer, the cost of a private investigator, the cost of a medical expert, the cost of a an engineer to describe some mechanical function or physical property, the cost of an expert to state that a particular document appears to be a forgery or appears to be authentic. Expenses may also include the cost of paying for the travel of witnesses who may be far away, even in other countries. Expenses often include the cost of paying a court reporter to prepare a transcript of testimony given by a witness in answer to questions by your attorney (called a deposition). In recent decades, such expensive evidence has become quite common and even necessary to prevail so that the cost of going to law has climbed dramatically. Who will pay for all of these expenses? In certain instances, they can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Usually, you, the client pays. However, in certain high-value matters the attorney may agree to pay and be responsible with the provision that if you prevail, the attorney will be reimbursed out of the proceeds. What if you prevail on a suit for money, will you automatically receive payment from the defendant? No! Often the prevailing party never receives payment since the defendant has no assets to collect against or someone else has obtained a judgment before your judgment and has priority. Or the defendant may declare bankruptcy and thus avoid paying you. Attorney's Fee Arrangements on Litigation Matters: This firm offers litigation representation either on an hourly basis
or a contingent fee basis. And provisions of both these types of fees
will differ depending on the circumstances. In order to enter into a contingency
arrangement, you must normally be pursuing a money judgment rather than
specific performance or the return of an item or a declaration of contract
terms or an accounting of investments made, etc. The firm will offer to
pay the out-of-pocket costs of litigation only on large dollar-value lawsuits
when a contingency arrangement is in place. Often the firm will require
a retainer for no other reason than to assure that the client is serious
about the lawsuit and will respond promptly to requests for information
and cooperation. On hourly retainers, the amount of a retainer required
will depend upon the estimated cost of the litigation. It will generally
be one-fourth of the estimated cost. You will be billed monthly for legal
fees and expenses and will be expected to pay promptly.
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Law Office of Michael Trevelline |
