As a business owner, you probably try to avoid business litigation at all costs. Business litigation is a drain on your time, disrupts your life, interferes with your daily business operations, and can take an emotional and financial toll. Despite the best efforts of businesses, sometimes business litigation becomes necessary. If you have been sued, or you need to file your lawsuit, it is essential that you choose the best possible lawyer to represent your case. You need an experienced business litigation lawyer with an in-depth understanding of your case who will advocate strongly for you throughout the entire process. Below, we have listed some of the most important things to look for when hiring a business litigation lawyer to represent you.
1) What are the Qualifications of Your Lawyer?
When you are facing business litigation, you need an experienced lawyer who is familiar with business litigation. Take time to review your potential lawyers’ qualifications. Find out how much trial experience your potential lawyer has, as he or she will need to be experienced in court should your case go to trial. While most business litigation lawsuits settled before going to trial, there is always a possibility yours will go to trial. Lawyers who have recently begun to practice may not have the experience needed to represent you in court.
2) Will Your Lawyer Listen to Your Goals and Needs?
One of the most important aspects of hiring a lawyer is to make sure your lawyer will listen carefully to your needs and goals. You want to hire a lawyer with whom you feel comfortable and who will take the time to focus on and listen to your concerns. If your lawyer seems too busy to listen, or uncomfortable when answering your questions, that is a sign that you should look for another lawyer. You need a lawyer who will quickly understand your case, listen to your goals, and explain the process to you as you go through it.
3) Which Lawyer Will Handle Your Case?
In some law firms, you may meet with one lawyer but be assigned to a different lawyer. During the initial interview, it is essential to ask who will represent you throughout your business litigation. Will your case be assigned to a less experienced lawyer or even a paralegal? If you want a business litigation attorney to handle your matter all the way through, it is important to make your expectations known upfront.
4) How Much Does the Lawyer Charge?
During your initial interview, you may want to ask how your lawyer will bill you for services. In business litigation, most lawyers will bill by the hour. Many lawyers also require new clients to provide an upfront retainer, a lump sum amount paid before they begin working on a case. The lawyer will deduct money from the retainer as he or she works on your case and bills you for the hours worked.
While it is impossible to know precisely how much your total legal bill will be, your lawyer may be able to give you an estimate. Should your matter end up going to trial, the total expenses will be more significant. However, there is always a potential that the court will award you legal fees in the end. Understanding a ballpark estimate of your legal fees will help you plan for the future.
5) What Type of Client Agreement Will You Need to Sign?
Before your lawyer officially begins representing you, you will need to sign a client agreement, sometimes called an engagement agreement. This document will state your lawyer’s fee structure, the amount of an upfront retainer, and any other terms that your lawyer requires for representing you. It is important to carefully read over the document to understand what the legal representation will involve. Once you sign this agreement, you will enter into a binding contract, so ensure that you ask your lawyer to explain anything in the contract you do not understand.
6) What are the Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Case?
An experienced lawyer will be able to tell you the strengths and weaknesses of your case. Sometimes, it can be difficult to hear about your case’s shortcomings, especially when you have been wronged. However, it is beneficial to have an accurate evaluation of your case, rather than learning about the weaknesses down the road. Anytime you are involved in business litigation, there is always a certain amount of risk because there is no certainty when a case goes before an arbiter, jury, or judge.
7) What Charges Will I See on My Bill?
During your initial consultation, you can ask about what types of fees will show up on your bill. In most cases, your lawyer will charge you out early, and he or she may charge a lower fee for paralegals or other office administrative staff who work on your case. If you see any changes that you were unsure about, it is important to discuss them with your lawyer and understand the law firm’s billing practices.
8) What is the Likely Outcome of the Action?
It is impossible to predict the future, but an experienced business litigation lawyer will often be able to help you understand the likely outcome of your case as you proceed through the process. For example, if you are in settlement negotiations, an experienced lawyer will often have a feel for how the negotiations will proceed.
Contact Solomon Appeals, Mediation & Arbitration Today
Attorney Donna Solomon has decades of experience in the area of business litigation. She is board certified by the Florida Bar as an Appellate Specialist and a Business Ligitagor. She is also one of only three certified attorneys in both appellate practice and business litigation. She is a Certified Public Accountant with an MBA in Finance. She focuses on getting to the heart of the matter. Contact Solomon Appeals, Mediation & Arbitration today to schedule your initial consultation.
You make an excellent point that when choosing a business litigation attorney, it is important for us to choose someone who will listen to our goals and needs. It makes sense for us to choose an attorney who will carefully listen to us as it will ensure us that they are operating in our best interest. Assuming that I need to hire a business litigation attorney for my business, I do agree that it is important for us to choose an attorney who is known to be a good listener.
Thank you for sharing this article. It is important to have this kind of information so that people can have adequate reference when hiring a lawyer.
I appreciate your advice to make sure your lawyer will listen to you carefully. You don’t want to hire someone who will ignore you. That will just cause a ton of issues in the end for everyone involved.
I want to make sure that my will is made properly, but I’m not sure what to do about it. It makes sense that I would want to get a lawyer to help me out with this! I’ll be sure to find one that specializes in this kind of thing.
I was in a car accident, and I’m not sure what to do about it. It makes sense that I would want to find a lawyer to help me out with this! That seems like a great way to ensure that I get everything together properly.
My brother told me that a lawyer is a lawyer. As in I could hire anyone and they’d be the exact same. But I agree with you that a new lawyer who just started won’t have the necessary experience to represent me in court.
Thanks for pointing out that business litigation can disrupt life and interfere with daily business operations. I would imagine that any business owner would want to avoid legal issues that can affect their operations. I think that they should look for attorneys who can maintain their reputation by handling contracts and preventing them to face conflicts and disputes.
I liked your tip about asking about the strengths and weaknesses of your case. I need a litigation lawyer. I will make sure to follow these tips to choose a good one!
Thanks for talking about how you need to consider expenses when looking for an attorney. It makes sense to think that considering this can help you find someone you can afford. I’ll make sure to consider this when I interview possible candidates this week.
Thanks for explaining the charges are required by the lawyers as especially in a business litigation case. I think this is something that a company should consider in finding a lawyer to check if this will meet their budget. I’ll make sure to take note the important points of this article for the future purposes.
It really helped when you mentioned that it is important to have someone that will be with you throughout the process. My best friend mentioned to me last night that he is hoping to find a business litigation service that can help them with the mismanagement claims of their business and asked me if I have any idea what is the best option to do. Thanks to this informative article, I’ll be sure to tell him that he can consult a trusted business litigation service in town as they can answer all their inquiries.
It’s great that you elaborated on hiring a lawyer for litigation and what to consider first! In my opinion, any business owner should work with professional lawyers in case of a conflict. If I owned a company and needed to solve a dispute, I’d definitely follow your hiring tips! I think you did an awesome job explaining how a lawyer must have trial experience!
You may meet with one lawyer but be assigned to a different lawyer. During the initial interview, it is essential to ask who will represent you throughout your business litigation. Thank you for the beautiful post!
I am glad you mentioned the importance of finding a litigation lawyer that you feel comfortable with. I’d also recommend looking into their track record before hiring them. That way, you can be sure that they have a good success rate and will handle your case well.
Thanks for mentioning that an experienced lawyer can help you find the strengths of your case. My husband is looking for a business lawyer to help deal with a product liability case. I hope he can find one with good reviews and decent fees.
I’m delighted you mentioned how corporate lawsuits may cause disruptions to daily operations and living. Any company owner would want to stay out of legal trouble if it may interfere with their day-to-day operations, I would think. They ought to seek out lawyers who can handle contracts in a way that keeps them out of trouble and avoids problems, in my opinion.