how do you sue someone and how does the process work if you win or lose?

Question

I’m from the UK suing isn’t as big a thing here. I’m 30 and I have never even spoke to a lawyer/ solicitor once so that whole world is a mystery to me. TIA!

In: 20

Answer 1

My situation was kind of, well, different. I discovered the company I worked for had been committing fraud for YEARS. I tried to handle it in house, thinking that it was just a bad apple or two, not a whole orchard of bad apple trees.

After I was laid off I contacted a lawyer who specializes in white collar crime. A few meetings with her and her colleagues where we discussed the specifics, and I wrote a 29 page report of EVERYTHING I knew, how my claims could be proven, explaining the smoking gun evidence I collected to protect myself, etc.

I paid $400 to file the lawsuit under seal in federal court. The DOJ and various senior members of our military interviewed me, then turned their sights on the company I worked for.

After a year long investigation they met with me again, and that company, and we came to an agreement that would make the government and me whole again.

If it went to court then the company would have been forced to pay up to 3x the amount the wronged, plus up to 10K USD for false claim they were caught telling the government. So it was in their best interest to settle.

Lawyers in that particular area of law work on “contingency”, which means they don’t get paid if they lose, only from a successful litigation – so they typically get paid half the realtors share (my share) plus all of their billable hours of work get paid by the defendant.

All said, the company I worked for was practically broke, and so normally the DOJ would not pursue recovering damages because it would cost more to investigate than would pay for said investigation – but it my case they made an exception because Service-Member lives were on the line if they wouldn’t act and and the conduct was so grossly wrong.

In the end I sleep better at night knowing the faulty products we made are going to be made right, so it was absolutely worth it. And getting my mortgage paid off early was a nice bonus.