Legal Case Assessment 

Commercial lawyers, their corporate departments and overall law firms, are under pressure to pursue good quality and meritorious cases, in order to reduce their own costs exposure, and provide an adequate return (profit) for the business.

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This is especially so when law firms act on CFA’s or DBA’s, as they don’t get paid unless they win. More on CFA’s and DBA’s later.

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Commercial litigation is nearly impossible to predict with any certainty, there are so many factors that come into play with each and every legal dispute. For example, how long will the litigation last or how costly it may be.

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This uncertainty is due in part to the very complex and unpredictable nature of commercial litigation, the many variables involved and the inability to measure certain risks accurately. However, although the exact cost and exact length of time, and exact damages estimates cannot be known in advance, commercial lawyers will make informed estimates of the pros & cons of the case, or the Risk v Reward profile to ensure it is worth pursuing for all parties, including the claimant.

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Considerations your commercial lawyer would take;

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• Identifying, collecting and verifying the pertinent facts,

• Is the proposed claim viable?

• What are the prospects of securing a win either by settlement or at trial?

• What is the estimated ultimate cost of the legal dispute if it went to Court?

• What is the client’s risk tolerance, how much loss can be tolerated?

• Can they reduce risk? (ATE Insurance) or (BTE Insurance) 

• Can they reduce expenses? (not incurring some costs)

• Identifying key witnesses and documents,

• Knowing the other side or defendant, including knowing their legal team,

• Creating a litigation budget, costs, risk, reward all considered together to form an opinion.

 

Legal Case Assessment outcome

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Once your commercial lawyer has considered all the above, and much more to be fair, they would then be in a much better position to advise you on the general prospects of success of your legal dispute, and the suggested next steps.

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It is quite possible that all this new information has now demonstrated to your lawyer that the legal dispute is not quite as strong as originally assumed. If this is the case, your lawyer may advise you that your chances of success are now below the threshold bar (say 50%), and they are unable to pursue the action any further. They may agree to waive your fees in such a circumstance, but this would depend upon the agreement you agreed to for this legal assessment stage.

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There could also be many other reasons that your lawyer suggests you do not pursue your legal action, for example;

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• The actual damages likely to be awarded are far less than originally assumed,

• The potential costs outweigh any benefit of litigation, even if won, as you won’t get all your costs back. (more on that later).

• The witnesses are unreliable,

• The dispute is not based on factual evidence, simply hearsay, or one word against another.

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Alternatively, the evidence and information produced has reinforced the commercial lawyers original legal assessment as being positive, everything stacks up, and they give an overall prospects of success figure of 60% for your legal dispute.

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You are ready to proceed to the next step – CFA | DBA |Retainer