Few things managers dread more than litigation. Even petty cases can damage relationships, tarnish reputations, and consume enormous amounts of money, time, and talent. One or both sides of a dispute can have financial incentives to drag out the discovery process to pad their billable hours. That’s why it pays to choose lawyers who are open with you about the case and provide frequent status reports.
Documentation
Documentation is the most crucial aspect of any litigation case. Whether in an employment discrimination or retaliation lawsuit or any other civil matter, lawsuits are won and lost based on evidence provided to the court. It is why it’s important to have a good system in place that helps companies comply with preservation and production requests from opposing counsel. It includes an automated notification system with audit trails for information systems and records management personnel to prevent data destruction. It also consists of a platform that allows the company to impose and enforce litigation holds, suspend retention policies, and manage discovery-specific data sets. The system should enable counsel to provide review-specific and production-specific data sets, which helps control litigation support costs. It should also be able to track and store backup tapes, which is critical for ESI cases.
Trial Preparation
Regarding trial preparation, legal professionals must consider everything that could go wrong. Even minor hiccups can throw off the entire trial course, so planning and preparing for the unexpected is important. Thorough trial preparation can involve various activities, including creating a road map and trial notebook. It’s also critical to develop a list of witnesses you’ll call, schedule their testimony and take taped depositions, if necessary. Finally, having a trial narrative in place is essential, which will help the judge and jury gain a deeper understanding of the facts presented in your case. The best business litigation attorney can craft a story that resonates with jurors and judges, regardless of the size or complexity of the case’s evidence. It’s a critical step in ensuring your case succeeds at trial.
Negotiation
Negotiated agreements settle many business disputes. Negotiating is typically quicker, less expensive and more private than going to trial. Good preparation is crucial to successful negotiation. It is important to have a firm grasp of the law, understand the client’s objectives and construct a plan for the talks. During the negotiations, it is helpful to use active listening skills, be assertive and remain flexible. It is also important to be aware of the other party’s personality type and tactics so that you can respond accordingly. Many factors can drive settlement, such as financial pressure in the form of mounting legal fees and expense reports, public pressure and other kinds of leverage. The goal is to arrive at an acceptable resolution for all parties. It is often helpful to identify a set of ‘non-negotiable’ outcomes at the outset and start with those, ideally working up to the more contentious issues.
Decision-Analysis
The decision-analysis process involves identifying and assessing all aspects of a business to determine the action that produces the most favorable outcome. This process can include models that evaluate the favorability of various products, including decision trees and is critical in making sound business decisions. A decision-analysis process can be difficult to navigate if not done properly. It is important to focus on the most essential areas of uncertainty and work out a consensus on those. A common mistake is to ignore important non-financial factors in a business decision analysis. Normatively, the decision-analysis approach provides a logical framework for choosing among actions with uncertain results. This uncertainty can be characterized by probability distributions for variables representing the key consequences of considered actions and a utility function that describes the decision maker’s relative preference for these different possible outcomes, assessing their risk aversion.