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
NAL, but have some personal experience.
Your jurisdiction (the place responsible for making and interpreting the laws and previous decisions) is going to make a big difference in exactly how the process starts, plays out, and ends.
The general idea is pretty simple. Someone has done something, and because of that, you have XYZ losses. Most of the time this is going to be strictly about money losses, but there a lot of different details that could come up and different results that could come out of this. We’ll just keep it simple and pretend it’s only about money. So to be “made whole again” (which just means so that you are back to where you were before the bad thing happened), you sue that person. This may not actually be possible, but we’ll just pretend that it can be done. For example, someone threw a ball through your window, and it cost you $2000 to repair, repaint, and so on. So you sue them for $2000. We will leave off all the weird and wacky stuff that can happen for “emotional damage” and the like.
Again, there are a lot of different ways this can go. It may involve lawyers. It may not. Some places have special courts for dealing with small lawsuits, precisely to keep costs from getting out of control.
In any case, you have to notify the court that you are suing, and in some way the person you are suing must be notified. The court may do that. You may be required to that. It depends on where you are at. Sometimes it must be made public knowledge through some media outlet. Not sure how often that is the case, though. After that, there are a few different phases this can go through.
There might be some sort of arbitration that is either required by law or by the contract that you might be using as the basis of the lawsuit. This can vary wildly depending on place and context.
The person you sued might try to have the whole thing thrown out. For instance, if it is clear you are just suing to shut someone up or to bully them, some places will have that thrown out before anything even gets started. But some do not have that in place.
If it’s clear that the law would be against you even if all your arguments and presented facts are true, some (I think probably nearly all) will toss it. Judges generally cannot decide facts before a case starts, but they can still decide law. Details can vary wildly here.
In some places, there may be some sort of shuffling on who you are actually suing. You might start off suing “A”, but “A” convinces the court that if they lose, then really it’s “B”‘s fault, or that “A” would not have any money anyway, so might as well go straight to the source. The court may decide that you really should be suing “B” instead.
The jurisdiction may also be in dispute. You may really want it being decided *here* because the law is strongly on your side. For obvious reasons, your opponent may want it *there* for that exact same reason.
In rare cases, the judge may need to recuse himself (take himself off the case) for any number of reasons. Generally, it’s whenever there is any question about their impartiality (being completely fair to each party). In that case, a new judge needs to be found to take their place.
Then you are going to have some sort of fact-finding phase. Again, each place will be different here, but the general idea is that both sides are trying to get as many facts straight as possible. Some places may have a way for both sides to agree on some facts beforehand so that they never actually have to be brought up in court. This can be quite intensive, and there can be a lot of back-and-forth to determine if something is relevant to a case.
Then there will generally be some sort of court date. Each place will do this differently. You may have a judge. You may have a judge with “side judges” that are just for that case. You might have a jury. You may have a single date. You may have to come back several times. You may have witnesses. Some places have very formal ways to conduct court business. Some places resemble a conversation.
During all of this, the judge may or may not hint as to which way things are going. The judge may or may not encourage the sides to try to come to an agreement before he has to give a judgement. The judge may or may not ask questions themselves.
What needs to be proven and how certain it needs to be will also vary wildly from place to place, and possibly even from case to case. Sometimes the judge has a lot of freedom to decide this.
And finally, if the sides cannot agree beforehand, the judge (or jury) will give a verdict. There may or may not be a separate court date to determine the exact “damages” that need to be paid to you.
And just because you are awarded the victory here does not mean that the person you sued will actually pay. You may be forced to actually go to court *again* to get a judgement that says that the person who was ordered to pay you, actually has to do it. It can get extremely tiresome.
Then there is the issue of collection. You may be lucky and the person just pays what they should. Or they may claim that they do not actually have the money. And guess what that might mean? That’s right, you might have to go to court *again* to prove that they actually have the money to pay. How this works is going to vary wildly as well, depending on place and context.
Finally, you wondered about who pays the court and lawyer costs. Yeah… This one can vary to a degree that I think can only be considered “crazy”. Some places, each person is on the hook for their own attorney fees. Some places, the loser has to pay. Some places, it may be divvied up depending on exactly “how bad” you lost. Some places will have exceptions for misusing the courts for harassment. Some will not. Some will give the judges leeway to do any of this.
As you noticed, all of this is quite varied and can get very complex. The only real way to know what to do is to consult with a lawyer/solicitor. Even then, my experience is that they will say, “Well, it *could* go like this…” And in addition to all the legislative laws and the precedence cases, each jurisdiction may have its own special rules about exactly what you need to do, and any particular judge may have even *more* special rules about the exact procedure to follow. Not following these rules will definitely not make you a favorite of the court.
So.
Then someone may decide that they do not like the judgement and want to appeal…
But I am going to stop there. I hope this gave an overview.
Also, if I can give my own two cents: avoid lawsuits if you can. Try to find *any* agreement if possible. Going to court is basically a crapshoot in many cases. It’s expensive, and time-consuming, and stressful. Even if you have insurance for this kind of thing, it’s still a royal pain in the ass. Your opponent is not going to play fair. Things may come out that you never intended anyone to ever know. You may have to play dirty yourself, and then you will need to sleep at night. It’s best to avoid it, if possible.
That said, fuck lawsuit scammers. Those guys need to go to prison forever.
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