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Three ways out of a lawsuit for a Defendant
Defendants are usually fixated on the facts as to why they should win. They may be right. But, winning on the facts consumes scores of attorney hours and takes a long time, meaning it costs a lot of money. Settling is often less expensive.
Summary
This blog is aimed at a defendant in a lawsuit in California and naturally wants to get out of the litigation as fast as possible and pay as little as possible. In order to get out of litigation as fast as possible, a defendant must first understand the stages of litigation, as follows: (1) pleading; (2) discovery; (3) alternative dispute resolution & pre-trial; (4) trial; (5) post-trial & appeal.
Three basic ways out; Reall five ways to win a lawsuit as a defendant
The three basic ways out of a lawsuit for a defendant are (1) convince the plaintiff to dismiss, usually by paying the plaintiff money; (2) win [or lose] via motion; (3) win or lose at trial. Most prospective clients want to focus on winning. The problem is winning consumes a lot of time. So, if you want an attorney to spend that time to help you win, you have got to pay for that attorney time.
In more details, that three ways turns out to be five ways that a defendant can get out of litigation, and as a practical matter, each is costly.
One: the plaintiff, the person who filed the lawsuit, voluntarily dismisses the case - usually because the defendant pays money to settle the case.
Two: The defendant wins, because the Complaint is defective and cannot be cured. This happens when there is some fatal legal defect with the complaint, for example it was filed too long after the events it complains of, or the complaint demands relief from the wrong person or entity.
Three: The defendant wins on Motion for Summary Judgment, because the evidence after discovery shows that there is no way the plaintiff can prevail.
Four: The defendant wins at trial.
Five: The plaintiff cannot serve the papers on the defendant or for some reason cannot get the case to trial within five years; extremely rare and unlikely.
Winning on the facts means winning on Summary Judgment or Trial, and Costs Scores, or Hundreds of Hours, Tens or Hundreds of Thousands of Attorney Fees
Importantly, if a defendant wants to discuss the facts that explain why that defendant is not liable and should not pay money, that defendant needs to understand that puts the case in the discovery phase.
However, getting through discovery is the bulk of the time, other than trial, in any case. Therefore, by focusing on the facts as to why the defendant should not pay, the defendant is implying that the defendant is willing to litigate the majority of the case.
If the defendant has an attorney, that defendant will need to pay the attorney to perform pleading and discovery, which is at least half the case.
If you don’t want to pay an attorney $40,000 to $100,000 and experts more, maybe you should consider settling?
The point is that litigation is extremely expensive. If the defendant does not want to pay a lot of attorney fees, then that defendant may want to consider settlement.
If a defendant does not have the money to pay for their attorney’s fees in defense, that defendant would be well-advised to consider making a settlement offer, because to get out of a lawsuit, a defendant either needs to win or to convince the plaintiff to voluntarily dismiss the suit.
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