Ten Things I Wish People Knew About Lawsuits

 I am not a licensed attorney in any state and this blog post is not to be even slightly construed as legal advice. Though it might be humorous.

Back in the olden days, we had an interesting way of settling disputes. The injured party walked up to the offender, hit him in the face with a glove, and challenged him to a duel. The two combatants then fought with swords or shot guns at each other until one was dead. Which was great, I guess, in that there was always a clear winner, but not so great in that the other party was, well, dead. Then you might have that person's relatives coming after you for bloody revenge, which sometimes devolved into feuds, and then whole nations got involved, and fortunately the Vikings figured out at some point that if they didn't nip this sort of thing in the bud, they'd kill each other off (being hotheaded and prone to taking offense). They came up with the weregeld, or danegeld system. If you offended or injured another person, the local lord could determine that you owed that person a certain amount of money. A lot if their life was lost, less if it was, you know, just an arm or something. (Some districts even had fee schedules.) And that worked pretty well until it occurred to people that there might be a way to handle this sort of stuff without anybody getting hurt whatsoever. And so they invented courts, first held by the local lord, then later by judges and lawyers.

Fast forward about a thousand years and you have the American civil legal system. It's kind of like the British civil legal system, and it also doesn't resemble the British civil legal system in any way whatsoever. It's a slime mold growing out of control, spawning new jurisdictions and laws and rules and procedures every time you turn around. Somebody, of course, has to keep on top of it all. That would be my job. Hello, I'm your friendly paralegal. I solve problems you never knew you had in ways that you would never understand.

Most of us will eventually be in court about some matter or other, either as a juror, a plaintiff, a defendant or (hopefully not a) criminal defendant. This is why we learn about courts in school, which was a long time ago for most people. Luckily, we have legal procedural shows like Law & Order to fill in the gaps. Not very well. And what I know about criminal law would fit on my tiniest fingernail, and there'd still be room for all the stuff I know about administrative law. But should you ever be in some kind of business or personal injury dispute and are contemplating maybe suing somebody, there are ten things you really need to know. Will your lawyer tell you these things? Maybe, if he or she remembers to. Will your paralegal? Also maybe. They should, but they don't always get to it because the slime mold keeps growing and spawning and sending out new psuedopods and there's only so many hours in the day.

Firstly, if you're even thinking about suing somebody, you need to talk to a lawyer. That sounds obvious, but people are strange. Sure, you can also get on Reddit or Facebook or talk to your friends, and who knows, you may even get the right answer. But you really want to talk to a lawyer too, and you should do it early, before things get out of control. Most lawyers do a free or low-cost consultation to meet you and consider what you want and let you know if it's even possible, for one thing, and if it's something they'd entertain doing, for another. Also, if you can't find a lawyer who will do the thing, that's a good sign that it's probably not legally possible, or, if possible, not worth the expense and bother of suing in the first place. If, for example, you wanna sue the driver who hit you in the car accident because his or her insurance company is not paying your expenses, you can probably find a lawyer (or nine or ten) to do that for you. If, on the other hand, you wanna sue the state of Texas because your lights went out for ten days during Snowpocalypse 2021, well, good luck with that. But don't take my word for it. Ask an actual lawyer. Also ask them to define sovereign immunity, because hey, that's important here.

Anyway, all that said, here are Ten Things I Wish People Knew About Filing Lawsuits.

10. It's going to take a long time. When you first bring the matter to the lawyer, the lawyer is going to try to settle it, because filing lawsuits is expensive and risky. Your statute of limitations, or the time you have to sue, may not even run for a year or more, and that's a good amount of time to work out a satisfactory settlement. Only if that doesn't work will the lawyer file the lawsuit, often the day of or just before the statute runs. (Paralegals lose sleep over this all the time.) Then, after it's filed, it may easily be another year to 18 months before the case is resolved and/or trial date is reached. So, filing lawsuits is not for the short of patience. It's going to take a long time. Bank on it.

9. In between months of nothing happening, there will be sudden frantic phone calls from your attorney (or, more likely, your paralegal) needing some document or some piece of paper IMMEDIATELY. This is not due to poor planning, necessarily; it's often due to the fact that the other side dug something up on you that you didn't mention to your attorney (because people do that) and the attorney needs the Real Story right this very minute. Also, court deadlines are sometimes issued ten days from now with no warning and much scrambling must ensue. This is the nature of the beast. So expect to be suddenly interrupted with this sort of thing. If you can, take all the relevant documents, put them in order and have them handy for when this kind of phone call comes in.

8. Keep all the emails and text messages associated with the matter saved in a special place, but DO NOT DISCUSS YOUR CASE ON SOCIAL MEDIA. Yes, you can mention you're involved in a lawsuit, but that's IT. Not the whys, not the whos, not the wherefores. The other side will be searching for you on social media too.  Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law. You heard it here and on 9,000 cop shows first.

7. If your case involves an injury, the other side can and will get your medical records. You can't prosecute a lawsuit without evidence and the defendant has as much of a right to that evidence as you do. Now, they usually can't get, say, your gynecologist's records if you broke your leg, but then again, if they can prove it's relevant, they might be able to. You can ask your attorney about what records are being requested, and your attorney can file a Motion to Quash if you think the other side is requesting irrelevant records. The Judge will then decide if the other side is entitled to have those records or not.

6. You will probably have to answer discovery questions, which can be long and intrusive. If you can, go into your attorney's office and talk to your paralegal to do this. Bring all your documents. You may also have to appear for a deposition. This is a formal interview, usually conducted by the attorney for the other side, where you will answer questions under oath just like you would in court. Usually everybody's pretty friendly and cordial, but if the other attorney gets out of line, your attorney will start saying "Objection" a lot and instruct you not to answer. Listen to your attorney when he or she says this and don't answer. Also, please don't wear sweat pants and flip flops to a deposition. A lawsuit doesn't have to be scary but it is serious, and you need to take it seriously.

5. Don't forget that lots of other people besides you have a hand on your settlement once your case resolves. For one thing, that's how your attorney gets paid; rent and keeping the office lights on are not free. I mean, that sounds dumb, but people forget this all the time and are surprised (yea verily, angry) when the case is resolved and they don't get a check for the whole $1 million. Also, bear in mind if you are getting medical treatment pending the resolution of the case, those bills are not free; you will still need to pay them once the money has been released. If you have health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, you will have to reimburse the insurer for at least part of the cost of your care, too.

4. Speaking of when the money rolls in, please do not make any specific plans for when that's gonna be. Usually, if the case settles, the funds are set to be released in a certain amount of time, but that time starts ticking AFTER all the preliminary stuff is done. That includes checking with such people as Medicare, Medicaid, your health insurance company, your doctors and the state office of child support enforcement to make sure you don't owe anybody any money. If you have an ongoing bankruptcy, the settlement can be held up until the bankruptcy case is over. If there is a trial and you win money in court, things are, ironically, even less certain. The other side could appeal, holding things up for months or years. Their insurance company could declare insolvency, pushing responsibility for the judgment back onto their reinsurer and largely starting things from the beginning. Stuff can happen, is what I'm saying. Until your attorney calls and tells you "I have the check in my hand," it's not a done deal.

3. Tell your attorney stuff. If you were high on meth at the time of the car accident, you need to cop to that even if you weren't the driver at fault. It's gonna be in your medical records, anyway, and if you don't think the other side's not gonna find it and make a Big Deal out of it, you are living in an alternate reality. Got in a bar fight the night before your deposition? Call your lawyer in the morning before you show up with a black eye. Did the same thing you're accusing the other party of having done? Yep, better cop to that too. Doesn't mean your case isn't worth anything, but it does change how your attorney will approach things and they can't change their approach if they don't know.

2. It's Complicated. Sure, your case may seem very straightforward to you, but if it's that straightforward, then thousands of people over the years have filed roughly the same case. That's that many thousands of opportunities for judges to make rulings that people don't like, people appealing those rulings, higher courts publishing rulings about those rulings, and, eventually, legislators passing laws about those rulings, which starts the whole ball rolling again. So please don't be annoyed when you ask your lawyer or paralegal a simple question and they can't answer it. "It depends" is probably the truth and "I'll get back to you in a couple days" is probably realistic.

And finally (drum roll, please) the No. 1 thing I wish people knew about filing a lawsuit:

1. You can lose. You can have a great case, a great attorney, all the facts in your favor, and sometimes the jury STILL decides for the other party. Why? Well, they know that and you don't, and unless they decide to tell you, you never will. Filing a lawsuit is always a risky endeavor. It's never a sure thing. So if there's any other way to settle your dispute, do that first. Sometimes there isn't. But go into it at least being aware that the worst case scenario can happen and in fact does every day.

Bonus point, and I'm listing it as a bonus point so that you'll pay more attention to it: DO NOT EVER TAKE OUT A PRE-SETTLEMENT LOAN WITH ANY FINANCE COMPANY OF ANY KIND EVER. AT ALL. Please oh please. Your lawyer will advise you against it, your paralegal will advise you against it, any financial advisor will advise you against it and it's Just A Really Bad Idea. A lawsuit is a gamble, not an asset. Yes, you're about to be homeless, your grandmother needs cancer treatment, your cat has gout. I get it. But get the money some other way. Borrow it on your credit card, take out a signature loan, borrow it from your cousin in Boston. Anything. Hell, go to one of those payday loan places on the street corner before you take out a pre-settlement loan. They are That Bad of a Deal. Real life scenario that I have seen happen, with variations: Client borrows $50,000 from a pre-settlement loan company. Client wins $100K at trial. Trial and other costs amount to $25k. Lawyer gets $40k. Doctor is owed $10k. Client would get the remaining $25k except they borrowed $50k from the finance company, which with interest is now up to $75k, so client gets nothing and finance company sues them for the $50k balance they can't pay now. And wins, since they signed a contract. And seizes their house, their car, and other major assets. Please don't do it. Please oh please.

Having said all that, though, I hope you never in your life need to file a lawsuit or appear in court or try to decide if you need to say "Guilty" or "Not guilty" when the Judge asks. If you ever do, though, find a good lawyer. You have been briefed. Pun intended. Cheers!