In this edition of the McBride Attorneys Law Show we discuss what do you do when you get threatened to be sued?
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If someone – or a lawyer – calls you and tells you they are going to sue you you are probably going to get scared!
And you probably get a lump in your throat! So what do you do?
We’ll discuss just that in this video! Join us!
Join The Our Shawn for the McBride Attorney Legal Show(TM) as we explore what we are seeing today in the legal landscape what we need for the future.
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Here is a machine transcript of the show. We note this has not been checked for accuracy and is based on what a computer has generated based on the conversation. But we hope it is helpful to you.
Hey everyone it’s The Our Shawn. Today we’ll talk about a very real issue. What do you do if somebody threatens to sue you in your business. For those of you who don’t know me as well on the corporate lawyer, I’m licensed in 12 states and Washington DC.And these are tips on the McBride attorneys law show where we help business owners business leaders to think about what they might do in a situation. Today we’re going to focus in on what happensIf somebody threatens to sue you. Alright. So let me start with the disclaimer as a lawyer.I don’t know what state you’re in, I’m only licensed in 12 states in DC. Even so, I’m not your counsel. I don’t know your situation. I can’t give you specific legal advice I can give you here, general ideas about what happens generallyLegal tips you need to go. Consult your own counsel of somebody struggling to see you very serious stuff, we’ll talk about why but you should probably be in talking to your lawyer.Alright, with that behind us. Let’s jump into some general ideas of what happens a lot of times when somebody gets suits you get a good idea of how to handle the situation.Alright, so the first thing to happen is you’re probably gonna panic right your heart’s going to flutter.You’re going to worry. Right, this is the this is the typical reaction of most clients, except very experienced clients who probably consumed a number of times where is your business gets bigger.These things become somewhat routine in some industries more common than others. Construction being one of the ones where everybody’s getting sued all the time.But other industries. They’re sporadic, but they are still a wake up call. So somebody’s calling you to threaten to sue you. They want to reaction.Something needs to change in their world. Right. They are upset for something, they may be upset by one of your actions they may be upset by something happened to be upset by your inaction.First thing to do is pause. Take the volume down, relax, understand what they’re looking for and what they’re coming afterVery practical tip I was just working through this issue with some folks. Recently, the other side, probably doesn’t want to spend money.On suing you, right. So unless there’s some special circumstances. There’s a contract out there that maybe provides for attorneys fees to the winner, etc. It’s going to cost them money.Generally in the US for them to see right they’re not going to get their attorneys fees back in many cases.You have to check your state law will kill it on there, but a lot of cases, they’re not getting their attorneys feedback that meansApps, a special statute, a contract of special provision in the law where you’re at in many places in the US. Most cases you’re not getting my back or selling. So if they’re coming on the offensive.They want you to stop something, do something, take some action. They don’t really want to go to the courtroom. Most people don’t want to the courtroom, even the people that are calling you saying let’s go to court.They want to get your actions to where they want and why, in some cases maybe you did make a bonafide mistake. We didn’t do what you were supposed to do. It happens.How can we correct this. How can we rectify it let’s start there. Let’s look at the problem and figure out what the solution is. We also need to look at the costOf the litigation from both sides. Right. What is each side one to incur if this thing turns into a lawsuit. That’s going to start to inform negotiations dragNow what typically happens in negotiation is we look to what would happen if we went to the courtroom.And then we come back and figure out where we’re at and what likely settlements or judgments or what a judge or jury would do like usually informs where we’re going to be at. So this way you want some logical level headednessI’m going to tell you I pick up the phone, call a lawyer, it’s not going to cost you a lot. Get some preliminary advice here.Have the lawyer engage, you know, Pam, a little bit of money at the moment, the likelihood of your winning or losing the likelihood of the other side.The other thing, the lawyer typically will be able to do is step outside the situation and look at both sides.Because we’re, we’re not as emotionally involved and we’ve seen lots of these cases, right. You’re a good boy, orUnderstands the dynamics of both sides, what they want, what you want. What’s the cost them to go to litigation. Was it cost you the business disruption on their endbusiness disruption on your end, the politics of it positioningWhat people might perceive from the lawsuit. A lot of us can go into it right because some companies don’t want to sue. If you don’t want to bePerceived as a person that Sue, some companies do like the soon because they liked it have that perception being taught you really need an outside perspective and then take it.Take it all into account. This is why you want pause for a little bit, buy some time getting a lawyer and welcome Elsa, by the time. Usually if you’re familiarCalls the other lawyer and says, Hey, I’m talking to my client, I need a couple of days, usually you can buy some time. Well, you’re good at that of calming the situation, having discussions among themselves.So calm situation. Somebody threatens to sue you step back, get the letter you get the phone call, whatever the case may be, you step backTake a good look at what’s happening, understand what’s going on and then take a step forward and figure out what happens next, right, where do you go from there.And once you understand kind of the situation. Get your breath. Get logical about it.Then you can start working out what’s going to happen and the likely pattern. This is just another business thing to deal with litigation as part of business.In many cases, you get a good lawyer on your side early in the process. You might be able to get to settlement, you might be able to negotiate it out. It might be as simple as saying, I’m sorry, I’m going to stop.For get that good logical separation from where you are and where you’re at. So don’t panic. Just because you’ve been sued. It happens takeA breath, get some perspective build an action plan to deal with this reality and then move forward in that plan. So don’t don’t upset yourself too much.Understand, it’s part of the game. So if you want more legal resources go to McBride attorneys calm.You can also check out the McBride attorneys law show here on YouTube, make sure you subscribe, ring the bell. So you get notifications, go check out my blog that McBride attorneys calm.Also check out my future of business show called future done right, all these are resources to help you that business owner, business leaders do better.Hope you’re going to take a breath. If you are the one getting sued or if you’re looking to it put policies and procedures in place.It will lessen the likelihood of getting sued, but know when you get sued. The first thing we do is take a breath, get some perspective.Figure out what the situation is and then move forward. So alright, folks. Be careful out there.Hopefully you’re not getting sued today. If you are, take a breath get perspective, call your lawyer, take the next steps you’ll be okay. Hopefully you can work it out without going to the courtroom.Alright, thanks, everybody is The Our Shawn signing off, look forward to seeing a future video here at the McBride attorneys law.
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