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Top 5 Tips Before You File A Lawsuit

Guest post by: Julio Portilla

Article Overview: Here are the top 5 tips you should know before filing a lawsuit.

Top 5 Tips Before You File A Lawsuit

Before you file a lawsuit, you need to decide a few things about your potential case.

You need to answer the following questions before deciding whether it’s worthwhile to bring a lawsuit to court:

1. Do I have a good case?

2. Am I comfortable with the idea of: Compromised Settlement or Going to Mediation.

3. Determine whether you have evidence to prove your case.

4. Determine whether there are witnesses and who will help prove your case.

5. Check whether your lawsuit is timely.

If the answer to any of these questions is no, you probably won’t want to sue!

Do I Have a Good Case?


To figure out whether you have a good case, it helps to know that lawyers break each type of lawsuit (called: cause of action) into a short list of legally required elements. As long as you know what the elements are for your type of lawsuit, it’s usually easy to determine whether you have a good case. Even if you think you have a good case, take some time to think about whether you can win the lawsuit.

Am I comfortable with the idea of:

Compromised settlement- (parties involved agree on the settlement discussed)


Going to Mediation- (an attempt to bring a settlement or compromise between disputants through the objective intervention of a neutral party)

Determine whether you have evidence to prove your case:

Think of and, if possible, locate evidence you will use to prove your case, including: documents, writings, objects, records, and so on. Determine whether the evidence you think you have exists and, if so, determine where it is, whether it is in your possession, whether you know where you can find it, and whether you will be able to obtain it. Is there a chance that the evidence will spoil, decompose, deteriorate while you are awaiting trial?

Determine whether there are witnesses who will help prove your case:

Was there anyone who observed first-hand any of the issues to be determined by your lawsuit? Are there witnesses who can testify about the different types of evidence you will present at trial? Will any of these witnesses be willing to testify on your behalf or would you have to summon them to court? Is there a witness in ill health or about to move to a different location who would be unable to testify for you in court? Can you lock in witness’ testimony through an affidavit or declaration? Can I Collect if I Win?

Check whether your lawsuit is timely:

Many types of lawsuits must be filed within certain periods of time called (statute of limitations). If you are not filing within the proper statute of limitations, your lawsuit will be dismissed.

Working With a Lawyer While there are a lot of legal needs you can tackle yourself, sometimes you need help or information from an attorney. Get Help Now!

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Article Tags: julio portilla, law NYC, lawsuit, NYC attorney, tips
Referred by: http://www.3MMediaGroup.com



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