No Fee Unless You Win
Let’s start with the presumption that someone was wronged, they rightfully want to exercise their legal rights, and you have been retained to protect their rights. Let’s even presume, as hard as it might be, that your client’s goals are reasonable and realistic. The Big Picture Of Litigation must be kept in mind when proceeding forward.
For example, pushing a case through extensive discovery and trial purely because the client wants the opposing party to spend lots of money – as either leverage for settlement or commercial advantage – should not be tolerated by the profession.
The American Board of Trial Advocates published a white paper that identified the goals and objectives of the civil justice system to include “fairness, confidence of the citizenry and litigants in the outcomes, impartial judges and juries, deterrence of wrongdoing and compensation for injury caused by wrongful conduct.”
To further these competing goals, cases should move through the system expeditiously and efficiently. Lining the firm’s coffers or running someone out of business is not part of the formula.
Tomes have been written discussing civility, lawyer conduct, and miscreants. I would like to impart the big picture of litigation to my readers. How do you maximize the results for both you and your client while furthering the goals of the civil justice system?
Nothing is more valuable than your integrity. I recently read a blog post that suggested filing more motions in litigation will make settlement more likely. Granted, demonstrating to your counterparts that you are not afraid of the trenches shows you have resilience and passion, but it also suggests you will throw pasta at the wall to see what sticks; in other words, you will file motions regardless of the likelihood of success. For what purpose? In my eyes, you lost your integrity.
Edward R. Murrow wrote, “To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful”.
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