In our last post, we highlighted the reasons that a business should have a litigation “war chest” in order to deal with the costs of dealing with a lawsuit. After all, the unfortunate part of litigation is that some companies will initiate lawsuits against companies that they know may not have the financial wherewithal to handle a large scale lawsuit.
But even if you have the money to do battle, it doesn’t always mean that you should. This is where settlement conferences become very important. In these meetings, sometimes initiated by the court, the parties sit down and get to the heart of the issues in the lawsuit so that meaningful settlement discussions can take place.
This post will provide a few helpful tips so that you can be prepared.
Leave your personal feelings aside – A company may wants to defend a lawsuit because they feel like they have done nothing wrong. While these feelings may be valid, defending a lawsuit just to defend one’s honor and pride could be much more expensive.
Be realistic about business impact– In a prior post, we talked about knowing your “nuisance number” and how important it is to stay under it. So if it won’t cost too much to settle, that should be a consideration.
Understand your attorney’s role – In a settlement conference, your attorney will likely be more of an advisor than an advocate. So don’t expect to have that same pit bull you hired to intimidate the other side.
The preceding is not legal advice. If you have additional questions about settlement conferences, an experienced business litigation attorney can help.