Wayne.B wrote:
On 22 Feb 2007 09:22:01 -0600, Dave wrote:


It is also a fact that it is much cheaper to initiate a lawsuit than
it is to defend.

That may or may not be the case. It depends. In
this case, it is certainly possible that the org
would assign a staff lawyer to defend the rogue
employee, resulting in little cost to him personally.

It is also certain that having to get approval for
the use of legal staff would raise awareness of
the problem within the org--especially if it
happened more than once.

What is the basis for that conclusion?


Filing a suit is almost a rubber stamp process for someone who knows
what they are doing. The chance of success is immaterial in this
particular instance since its primary goal is issue recognition. I
believe it can be done by anyone with rudimentary knowledge of the
process. There are self help web sites available that are applicable
to many venues.

It is not the filing of a lawsuit that costs a lot
of money. It is the successful prosecution of it.
To file a lawsuit only involves determining an
appropriate venue (court), typing up the
complaint, and filing it with the clerk of the
court. It may also involve having the person you
are sueing personally served with a certified copy
of the complaint, but not always. In some cases
the complaint can be served by certified mail.

After that, it is showing up for docket call, the
initial hearing, staying on top of any filings by
the opponents and responding to them, etc. This
also does not take a lot of time.

The real costs start during discovery, when the
plaintiffs lawyer has to put in days of time to
set up and attend depositions, produce documents,
go over the opponents documents, etc.

More real costs occur during preparation for
trial, and the trial itself, as that will also
require days of the plaintiffs lawyer's time
assuming that he wants to be successful.

Been there, done that, and learned a lot. :/

Still, for anyone that is willing to spend a few
thousand dollars to make a point, it is quite
doable. It helps a lot if you have an attorney
friend who will do the filings and not fluff your
bill.

Don W.