Getting sued in today’s business environment is pretty much a cost of doing business. But, that does not mean that it should be the end of your business. This short article is designed to help you navigate the waters if you are served with lawsuit papers.
When the day comes and a stranger walks into your office or shop with legal papers to serve, should you run and hide, lie to the process server by saying “John is not here”, or graciously take the papers? If you think the first or second answer will help you avoid a lawsuit or buy you more time to make a bigger mistake, you are wrong. There are many ways in which lawsuit papers can be served. In some situations, service of process can occur without you even knowing it, with very undesirable and expensive consequences. The best bet in every situation is to accept the papers, thank the process server, and let him/her go about their business.
Once you receive the papers, it is vitally important that they be delivered to an experienced litigation attorney immediately. In Texas state courts, you have between 21 and 27 days in which to file a written answer depending on the day of the week on which you were served. In federal court, you have 20 days. Missing those deadlines can result in a waiver of various defenses, and at worst result in a default judgment against you. Because it takes time to prepare the papers and explore the available defenses, the papers should be in the hands of your attorney as quickly as possible.
Upon being served, collect all paperwork and other information that might pertain to the matter. This is not a time to make judgment calls about what might be needed. Your lawyer will want everything. That includes contracts, purchase orders, invoices, emails, text messages, photographs, recordings, computer stored information, files and everything else. While the uninitiated might think that is just to run up the bill, the truth of the matter is that lawyers look at things differently. What a business owner may see as being trivial may, in the lawyer’s eyes, be a key piece of evidence. Let your lawyer sort out what it useful in the lawsuit. It will be less expensive in the long run.
While you are compiling your documents and other evidence for your lawyer, do not throw away or destroy anything you think might hurt your case! If you have it, odds are that someone else does as well. And, the odds are even greater that, living in the digital age, someone else can retrace it through your computer system. The worst thing you can do for yourself is try to avoid the ramifications of unfavorable evidence. On the other hand, a good lawyer knows how to handle unfavorable information and mitigate its impact.
While your lawyer is formulating your response to the lawsuit, you should also consider trying to resolve the dispute through settlement. There is a cost to defending a lawsuit, often a cost that cannot be recovered. Therefore, trying to settle the dispute while those funds are still available can make sense. Again, the settlement efforts should be handled by your litigation lawyer as any misstep could prejudice you in the ongoing litigation. Do not try to work it out with your opponent yourself as doing so could cost you. Remember, what you say can and will be used against you in court!
Finally, once the matter is in your lawyer’s hands, follow his/her advice, and do not do anything without consulting them first. You and your lawyer are now a team, and both need to operate from the same playbook.