The Expert Podcast

…So you have some type of conflict or dispute with somebody and it looks like it's heading for lawsuit or maybe it's already been filed as a lawsuit whether you filed as a plaintiff or you've been sued as a defendant. You have a dispute that's going to court. What should you do What are the first things you need to do? When a lawsuit is pending or impending? First of all remember we're not attorneys we're not giving you legal advice, but we are in the business of investigations We're a licensed private investigator We're a licensed mediator.

We also have licenses in the commercial insurance industry So we know a lot about how these conflicts work. So we've seen it from both sides You've also. testified as an expert witness and many many court cases So we can see this litigation process happening from the inside and the outside First thing you need to do if you have a…

conflict that's going to court going to trial. Is considered getting. Qualified legal advice even if it's a small claims case. it's probably worth spending a few hundred dollars to do a consultation with an attorney…

To have them just give you some basic overview even if they don't. You don't hire them for your case or you don't pay them to represent you. You want to get some feedback where they say you know watch out for doing this or avoid doing that because here's what could happen. In handling communications with another party you might inadvertently say or do something that creates more liability for yourself. It might degrade some of the rights that you have.

It might give the other side an automatic win So you want to make sure you avoid doing things It's kind of like, what'd you see on TV? You know you have the right to remain silent. You want to make sure that whatever you're saying to the other person is not hurting you and is helping you Attorney can help you with them. Number two is. whether you're in a case or not look to.

Gather information as much as you can during. or before that case as licensed investigators this is what we do quite a bit We do pre-litigation investigation Sometimes you want to search for the assets of that person. You want to see if you're suing somebody for $50,000. Do they actually have the assets to pay you back If they don't have any assets you could win the lawsuit but have no money. Also you want to make sure they don't have too many assets.

If you're assuming somebody for $50,000 and they have $10 million in the bank. They could spend. $50,000 in legal fees just out of spite. And you could get nothing because you could lose cause you have to pay that much in legal fees or they could win the case even if they don't deserve it. So when you do an asset search you're not just looking to see if they have enough assets.

You're wanting to make sure they don't have too many assets that could they. They could use it to squash you.

so a pre. case investigation is important also to look at other activities of that person Do they have a criminal record? Have they sued people before Have they been in court before you can pull those court cases and find out what other activities they've been involved with? Is it similar to yours Have they been, accused of fraud? have they been in the same type of disputes in the past and have they won or lost?

Are they very litigation happy Like they have a, a habit of suing people or getting sued. At the same time you want to look to see what their existing. activity pattern is where do they work? What is their prior employment Have they switched jobs Are they going through divorce? Are they getting foreclosed on their house?

There's a number of things in a background that you can research And that's part of what an investigation would do to look for assets to look for. activities and to look for. prior troublesome. Events in their history. Next thing you want to look at is how to mitigate the resolution What that means is whether.

call it settlement mediation, arbitration, negotiation whatever you want to call it. You want to see if there's a way. To resolve the dispute. Prior to or in alternative to going to court And here's the reason why. Even if you think you want your day in court you want to fight it out You want to win.

That's great, but it's going to cost you something Even the small claims If you don't have an attorney it's going to cost you your time. It's going to cost you. You know day off from work you have to go to court pay court fees. If you can resolve this and settle it. It will eliminate all that even if it's not exactly what you want.

Many times in hindsight people who have one case to say, I wish I didn't go through all this I wish I just settled. It's hard to see that from the other side. But at least you want to see what your options are and a good way to do that is mediation. If you have a third party if you try to negotiate directly with the other side, you both are going to have too much pride in too much, kind of draw a line in the sand to really be able to hear what the other side say and they're not going to hear what you're saying either. An unbiased third party like a mediator.

like an arbitrator. Can help. Dissolve all of those bad feelings in that bad blood to get to see what's already there In most cases, the dispute already has 90% of it is already agreed on There's just a couple of sticking points that are holding up the parties. And a third party can…unbiased neutral no emotions help see through all the stuff that you guys are seeing red in front of you…

And a mediator can do that…

The other thing about mediation is it's completely private. So if you go to court you start putting evidence in court That's all public record. Right Think about the things you might have to answer or say or ask in court and that's got to be in the public. realm. Mediation is private.

And you want to get a third party whether it's your attorney whether it's a mediator and arbitrator or even just some random person to kind of get in between you guys to see. what can be worked out I know it's hard to do…

The good thing about mediation is you don't have to abide by it If you both go to mediation and you…kind of propose some settlement or the mediator proposed a settlement. And you don't like it You can walk away. Right You don't have to take it but at least you know where you stand at least you know where the other side stands. So if you do go to court, You'll know what your options are You can look at your least possible. Outcome or your highest possible outcome before you.

Step into that ring of court, because if you do that now, You have a different scenario whatever the court says you have to abide by It's not voluntary anymore It's not optional anymore. If the court says you have to do this or you win or you lose or you pay. That's it. Yeah That's the final answer. Mediation At least you have control of your own destiny It's the last chance you have to do that.

The other thing that we recommend doing is making sure that whatever activity resulted in this litigation. Is mitigated right If you're doing something that…

the other side is suing you for are you suing them for at least in the meantime, putting that on pause until it's settled you don't wanna make it any worse You don't want to make it any better, but put it on pause. until it's settled. When you're involved in a conflict many times the logic and reality of that conflict gets thrown out the window because you're just thinking about your side. The law may seem like it favors you. But it really might not On the other hand you might think you have a weak case and the other side's gonna, you know slam dunk the case, but you might find that they might make a mistake or the law might really.

Favor you. Do these things in advance of getting involved in a court case, and you'll avoid huge outcomes that are negative and have the highest possibility of having a win or a beneficial result in that litigation.