The Expert Podcast

So how can you get yourself out of a lawsuit if you're in a conflict with somebody over a contract or over some dispute or some other type of conflict whether it's a a neighbor fighting over a fence maybe it's a business deal gone bad maybe it's a divorce how do you get yourself out of a jam of being in a lawsuit we have a few options obviously you can negotiate a settlements uh with attorneys or directly you can do demand letters uh you can also do mediation using a third party neutral mediator another way you can do it is an alternative to court where you're using an unofficial type court and you have a um dispute master who listens through the sides of a case just like a judge would they're not attorneys they're not an official uh legal Court by any means but you can pitch your story show your evidence show your documents it's an abbreviated form the other side can do the same thing the dispute Master will probably ask some questions to both of you to clarify some things and they'll give you their version of a ruling now it's not the same as a Court ruling where it's official and it's binding you can both decide we don't want to do this but at least it will give you an idea of what an official Court ruling might be like CU that uh dispute Master is going of know how courts um work they're going to have a lot of experience with disputes with investigations with insurance claims and they'll know based on your evidence what's probably going to happen and you can use that as a guide to say well if that's really what's going to happen maybe we should settle or if that's what's going to happen maybe I shouldn't file this lawsuit to begin with or maybe I shouldn't defend myself um or you might both parties decide you know what that's a pretty reasonable answer what they said on this um alternate court and we'll go for it but again it's up to you it's not forced it's not required it's not a binding thing so keep in mind that if you feel like it's a nightmare that you're in this dispute in this conflict you do have some options worst case scenario you might end up in court and paying tens of thousands in legal fees and have to cross your fingers and hope that the court rules in your favor you may not have a choice if the other party you know pushes it to that limit but at least try some of those other options negotiated settlement with attorneys uh mediation arbitration or an alternate Demand Court where you can see what your op options are in advance and maybe have some alternative sooner so you don't have to have this hanging over your head losing sleep on it for months or even years.