After
litigating for 32 years here is what I learned for sure.
When litigating, it’s better to be rich. I understand that
may be obvious, but as the costs of litigation continue to
rise, it’s a lesson that the average Joe needs to learn and
learn quick. The bottom line is that it’s better to be
rich because a rich person is not deterred by the cost of
litigating and can simply fight fight fight.
Here’s
how it goes representing rich people over the years: Let’s
say they are suing someone that owes them $15,678.32 I know
before I start that my marching orders are to settle the
case for $15,678.32 plus reimbursement of fee and costs.
It’s that simple.
When it’s
a rich person vs. a poor person, every settlement offer made
by the poor person will be rejected by the rich person if it
simply does not reimburse the rich person everything they
are seeking. Then, the poorer person has to ask themselves
if they simply want to offer everything the rich person
wants, or continue to spend thousands of dollars anyway
litigating. Eventually they realize that it’s simply easier
paying the rich person everything they want, rather than to
keep fighting, keep paying their lawyer and keep taking a
risk about losing the case. It’s a very unfair fight. I
have represented rich people who simply would not settle
unless they also received some sort of an apology. That
made settlement a lot tougher to accomplish.
Where it
gets really interesting is when two very wealthy people are
litigating against each other. You might think that these
very successful people would sit down and work things out
because their time and money are better spent elsewhere, but
that’s not the case. At that point the competitive nature
kicks in and it’s usually all or nothing or fight to the
death. Only sometimes can you convince the parties to
settle. Each side spent a lot of money litigating, but they
showed the other side that they can fight just as strong and
as hard as they can.
The
bottom line is that the courtroom is truly for the wealthy.
In the condo and HOA world, it’s usually the associations
that have a tremendous advantage over the owner because they
control the purse strings. Everyone else should get to the
mediation table as fast as they can.
