When could it be a good idea to initiate or defend a legal action? That appears to be an easy question at first glance. A lot of individuals who aren’t attorneys, including myself before I passed the bar exam, have the mindset that if someone has the facts and the law on their side, they should just slap a lawsuit on the other party and proceed gung-ho all the way to the end of the case. This was my mindset before I became an attorney. In a same vein, if someone sues you, you should defend your honour to the very end, regardless of the risks or the costs, even if it means going to court.
Or so I thought at the time. My experience as a lawyer, during which I have helped clients in dozens of different legal disputes, has given me a new point of view on the circumstances in which going to court is beneficial and those in which it is not. And I make use of that perspective now when I counsel customers about the various options available to them and the advantages and disadvantages of each one. When someone is weighing their options regarding whether or not to engage in legal conflict, a number of considerations typically come into play, some of which I’m going to talk about in this post.
The cost of legal representation is, without question, the most important consideration behind this choice. As a result, I am going to devote some of my attention to this topic and talk about how the law in Idaho addresses the problem of attorney’s fees in legal disputes. The high cost of litigation is not exactly a well-kept secret. Although the vast majority of cases are settled or otherwise handled before going to trial (either through summary judgement, motions to dismiss, or settlements), the cost of taking a matter all the way through trial in this day and age can easily reach six figures. These costs include not just the attorney’s fees but also the expert-witness fees that are often necessary for real estate disputes that contain issues of surveying, engineering, construction, and other things in which competent expert testimony is typically required. These types of litigation typically entail issues such as surveying, engineering, construction, and other matters in which qualified expert evidence is typically needed. Depositions are a typical part of the litigation process and come with their own set of costs, including those associated with court reporting services and transcripts.
Before being involved in a legal battle, it is of the utmost importance to have as clear of an understanding of what is at risk in the case as is humanly possible given the significant costs that are associated with legal disputes. To clarify, what I mean by this is to gain a general estimate of how much money is at risk. The majority of people enjoy being proven right, and under certain conditions, they are willing to go to battle for their principles. But when the legal bills start piling up, those concerns can easily be pushed to the background as the harsh reality of the financial situation set in.
What does this look like when it’s put into practise? Consider the following scenario: you recently purchased a home, but the seller failed to inform you that certain repairs would need to be made. Should you file a suit against the seller alleging that they committed fraud? Maybe, maybe not. One of the most important things to take into consideration is, without a doubt, the possibility of demonstrating that the vendor committed fraud against you. In addition to this, you should calculate how much it will cost to get the essential repairs done. The next step is to evaluate the expense of this option in light of the projected cost of initiating a legal proceeding. If, for example, the cost of the repairs will be $6,000, then that is a big sum for the majority of people; this is especially true if you have recently purchased a home and have a brand-new mortgage to begin paying off.
However, when weighed against the potential expenses incurred when pursuing a case through the legal system, the sum of $6,000 appears to be a pretty insignificant sum. You should prepare yourself for the possibility that your legal battle will end up costing you significantly more than $6,000. And unless you have a case that is as clear-cut as a smoking gun or a slam dunk (which, in the vast majority of cases, would be settled swiftly), there is a chance that a judge or jury won’t view things the way you do, leaving you with nothing to show for the time and money you spent on the case. It is never pleasant to hear or say something like this, especially when someone seems to have been wronged in a genuine way, but I have found that it is necessary to share this type of thought process on a number of occasions with clients and potential clients. But doing so is essential.
When contemplating filing a lawsuit that may or may not cost more than the amount that is at stake, the most important question to ask yourself in terms of the law is whether or not, in the event that you win the case, you will be entitled to an automatic award of attorney’s fees and costs. There are a number of distinct paths that can lead to the achievement of such a prize. To begin, if you have a contract with another party — for example, a contract to buy land — the language in that contract may provide that if a lawsuit is brought about as a result of the contract, the party that prevails in the litigation has the right to have the losing party pay their attorney’s fees and other associated costs.
Because it permits a party who is the victim of a breach to seek redress in court without being dissuaded as much by the costs of doing so, it is customary for me to include language of this type in the contracts that I draught for clients. In the event that one party to a contract breaches the terms of the agreement, it is possible that the other party will leave the other party without any practical redress.
In some circumstances, the statutes of Idaho provide for the payment of attorneys’ fees. There are a variety of statutes in Idaho that can, depending on the nature of the case, provide for the payment of attorney’s fees. I do not have the time to address all of them here, but I will highlight some of the statutes that are most frequently challenged in court regarding attorney’s fees.
To begin, there is the provision found in section 12-120 of the Idaho Code. This statute contains a number of subsections, some of which are regularly cited in judicial proceedings. In disputes that arise from business transactions or contracts for the purchase and sale of products or services, the clause in section 12-120(3) stipulates, in part, that the party who wins the case is entitled to an award of its reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. This applies even if the fees and expenses were not fair. There are a lot of lawsuits that fall into this category, however it is frequently debated within specific instances whether or not the case was actually about a “commercial transaction” or a contract for the purchase of goods and services. A “commercial transaction” for the purposes of this Act is defined as any transaction other than those that are conducted for personal or domestic reasons.
Unfortunately, there have been a considerable number of cases in Idaho that have applied this concept to different sets of facts, and we won’t be able to address all of those cases today because we don’t have enough time. Under Idaho Code § 12-120(3), however, a company that enters into a contract with a professional for the provision of products or services (such the construction of an office building, for instance) may be eligible to collect attorney’s fees in the event that the company is successful in a subsequent legal action.
In addition, subsection (1) can be found in Idaho Code section 12-120. If someone sues for an amount that is less than $35,000 and wins the case, they are eligible to recover their attorney’s fees under the terms of paragraph (1). However, in order to do so, they must first demonstrate that they made a written demand for the amount that was at risk in the case at least ten days before they filed the lawsuit. According to subsection (1) of section 12-120 of the Idaho Code, no attorney’s fees will be granted if the defendant can demonstrate that they had already paid at least 95% of the amount that the plaintiff had requested when the lawsuit was filed. In accordance with subsection (1) of section 12-120, a victorious defendant may be awarded attorney’s fees.
In other words, in circumstances where the plaintiff (i.e., the person who files the lawsuit) sues for $35,000 or less, the plaintiff can collect an award of fees if they win and provided they complied with the provision in the statute that they send a demand letter. However, this only applies in cases where the plaintiff sued for less than $35,000. This statute assists individuals in enforcing their legal rights in situations in which it would otherwise be too expensive to do so, similar to contract clauses that give the winner of a case with attorney’s fees. Nevertheless, anyone who is considering 12-120(1) as the foundation for attorney’s fees needs to have their attorney conduct an impartial evaluation of their odds of winning the case. This is because losing the lawsuit could entail having to pay the opposing side’s attorney’s fees and costs.
The next part is known as section 12-121 of the Idaho Code. According to this statute, the court has the authority to give the prevailing party in a lawsuit the attorney’s fees and costs associated with the case if the court determines that the losing party prosecuted its case in an unreasonable, baseless, or frivolous manner. Now, in my experience, it is extremely rare for someone to be involved in a legal dispute who does not believe that the other party is pursuing its case in an unjustified, unreasonable, and baseless manner. Even if the judge decides that your side of the case is successful, the fact that you deem the other side’s case to be without merit does not mean that the court will share your opinion. It is not very common for courts in the state of Idaho to decide that a party that did not prevail pursued its case in an unreasonable, baseless, or frivolous manner. This is due to the fact that in the majority of situations, there are legitimate disagreements over the facts or the appropriate application of the law. And every once in a while, a lawsuit may present the courts with a legal problem or a factual problem that they have never dealt with before. Even if you are successful in this type of lawsuit, it is unlikely that you would be able to persuade the judge that the opposing side was being frivolous or unreasonable in their pursuit of their cause. As a result of this, it is generally not a good idea for anyone to make the assumption that they will be awarded attorney’s fees if they prevail in their case in accordance with Idaho Code section 12-121.
There are a number of other legislation in Idaho that, depending on the kind of legal dispute that is being litigated, may grant the victor an award of attorney’s fees and court costs automatically. It is usually wise to know what statutes, if any, would provide either you or the opposing side with an automatic award of fees and expenses before entering into a litigation. Knowing this information will help you make more informed decisions.
It is common practise for contract terms and statutory provisions regarding solicitor’s fees to provide that the awarding of fees must be “reasonable.” In other words, the court has the authority to examine the bills that have been submitted by the attorney for the victorious party to determine whether or not, in the court’s exclusive judgement, the bills constitute an excessive amount of money. In that case, the court has the discretion to reduce the amount of fees granted to a level that it considers to be appropriate given the specifics of the case.
Even though the choice to file a lawsuit almost always involves some degree of emotional investment, at its core, it is (or at least it should be) an economic one. To this purpose, those who are considering engaging in litigation should, as soon as it is possible, identify what they hope to gain out of the lawsuit, what their chances are of attaining that, how much they will most likely spend to get there, and the likelihood of recovering their legal fees if they win the case. People can lessen the likelihood of shelling out two dollars for only one dollar if they make appropriate preparations in advance.
