What is Litigation?
Attorney Chad Walker of Regan Atwood in Orlando, Fla., explains litigation and the steps that can taken to resolve a legal problem before a case goes to trial.
What is Litigation?
What is litigation? Litigation is a form of dispute resolution that can include pre-suit negotiations through a pre-suit resolution process such as arbitration. If it cannot be resolved, then we move into pursuing a claim in court, filing a lawsuit in federal or state court.
How a dispute is resolved can vary depending upon a number of different factors. Some of the things we look at are:
- What are the goals and objectives of the client?
- What’s the relationship between the parties?
- What’s the particular nature of the dispute?
- What are the challenges in the dispute?
- What type of information is available?
- What’s the likelihood of the length of resolving the dispute, if we go all the way to court?
- Before Going to Court
What Are the Clients’ Goals?
When we talk about the goals and objectives of the client, one of the things we explore early on is, is there a desire to resolve the dispute in pre-suit before a lawsuit is actually filed? Litigation doesn’t ultimately, or a litigation practice doesn’t ultimately mean that we go directly to court.
If there is an opportunity to resolve a dispute, pre-suit, and preserve an existing relationship between parties, a business relationship, or a valued relationship with a public entity, then we pursue those opportunities on behalf of the client.
Pursuing a Claim in Court
If ultimately we’re not able to achieve a desirable outcome through pre-suit negotiations through a pre-suit resolution process, then we move into pursuing a claim in court, filing a lawsuit in federal or state court, and then taking it through the litigation process in a court proceeding. Or if there’s an arbitration clause, we pursue resolution through the arbitration procedure.
