Get good legal advice

Risks and rewards drive options. Legal issues also require an understanding of gambling and rewards. In litigation, for example, you often take chances with the random assignment of a judge. The judge may administer his courtroom strictly or flexibly, or is known to rule impulsively. Risks can include the likely composition of the jury based on their values ​​and perspectives. Another downside could also be the opponent’s financial resources. Those funds may be available to pay a hefty verdict, but they are also available to aggressively defend the case before it goes to trial. Or conversely, the opponent can go bankrupt at the end of the litigation.

Assessing the risks and rewards is much like an insurer assesses a credit risk by assigning a credit score. Neither case is perfect, but when evaluated, the dollar amount marked as the “target” value should accurately incorporate both strengths and weaknesses.

A competent legal advisor will carefully review the law and the evidence with his clients at various stages of litigation. This review is similar to a market valuation often used in business, known as a “SWOT.” The acronym is “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats”. This process is often run backwards from a future time when a judge, referee, or jury will make a decision. The process is always to ask what evidence we have and if the evidence meets the requirements of the law. For example, is this witness a convincing witness who will leave a positive impression on the witness stand? Perhaps the question is whether a judge will allow evidence in the case, such as evidence in an age discrimination case that the employer has discriminated against older workers in similar circumstances in the past.

Sometimes the risk is that juries in a particular jurisdiction will be known to favor employers or corporations and not sympathize with the demands of employees. A good counselor will have information about the potential jury, judge, or referee. You will also get information on what the verdicts have been for similar cases in that jurisdiction.

An effective attorney will reassess the risks and rewards as the case progresses and as new information becomes available. Witness statements, newly discovered documents, expert opinions, and cash reserves can all be grounds for a substantial change in valuation.

All of my clients must also assess their level of determination to proceed with the case to a conclusion by arbitration award or verdict. The opponent will use all available negative information to discredit the plaintiff. An aggressive adversary will attempt to scare and humiliate a party with embarrassing acts, such as a past arrest or incarceration, addiction, a job termination, or a psychiatric record. Often times this information can be excluded from the evidence, but the client must be resilient enough to accept that the other party will use these tactics to divert focus from their wrongdoing.

A trained legal advisor will know and articulate the opponent’s arguments from the beginning before the case is filed or served. Just as importantly, the attorney must have the courage to weigh the evidence as it is presented in documents and witnesses and tell the client that the case may not be as airtight as originally thought. This candid reassessment is a service because it grounds the customer in reality and saves them the time, excitement, and effort of a lengthy battle without the desired payoff.

In my office, we do a role play. We, as lawyers, not only present the opponent’s case, but we play the role of witnesses, seeing the battle through their eyes and with their emotions. We ask our clients to join us in this pre-trial drama, as if they were the opponent, telling the opponent’s opinion on things as the client is likely to hear it from the witness stand.

Most clients find this role play difficult. But when we remind them again that they are “out of place”, they take the opponent’s testimony again, as much as they may not believe it. A positive outcome of the exercise is the client’s appreciation that there is another plausible narrative competing for the referee or jury’s acceptance. This deeper understanding gives the client the power to assess risks more accurately. This knowledge, in turn, helps the client set the best settlement goal.

In conclusion, the legal advisor will guide his client to reach a target number for settlement. If they cannot reach that number, both the attorney and the client can feel confident that trial is the best option.

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