If you have filed a lawsuit against another person or business, you are involved in civil litigation (“cl”). This differs from a criminal law case where the government always brings the legal action. In addition, in a criminal case, the government can often punish the losing party with jail time; in a civil case, the most common ending is one party paying the other. A few other civil remedies do exist, such as returning property or stopping some sort of behavior, but you can never put the other person in jail.

There are a huge variety of topics included in civil litigation. A broken contract, business conflicts, landlord/tenant issues and problems with a will are all forms of cl. These suits can revolve around a crime or injury, too. For instance, if a drunk driver in Chicago injures you in a car accident, you could bring a claim at the Daley Center against the person to receive compensation for your injuries. This is true even if the State of Illinois brings a criminal case against that person for drunk driving and puts them in jail. It’s also true if the Illinois criminal judge were to order the defendant to pay you restitution.

Since civil litigation includes virtually any topic that is not criminal, most civil lawyers choose a specific topic to focus on, like divorce cases or personal injury, instead of trying to take any civil law case. You should be sure to find a lawyer who specializes in your legal issue. If you are bringing a suit because you have been injured, usually an Illinois personal injury lawyer will take your case on a contingency. This means you won’t have to pay any upfront fee or ongoing rate; instead, your lawyer will recover a portion of any money you get from the other side at the end of the case. Other attorneys will have different fee arrangements. If you have business or contract issue, usually the lawyer will charge an hourly rate to work on your case. In addition, the lawyer will probably charge a retainer- an upfront fee you pay to officially hire the lawyer. If you are the defendant in a case, you will virtually always pay your lawyer a retainer and hourly rate. That said, in Illinois when you are sued and have insurance that hires a lawyer for you, the insurance company pays all of the law firm fees.

There are many rules and regulations that determine how and when you can bring your lawsuit, including strict timelines of when to take certain actions. A civil attorney experienced with your legal issue will know how to properly move your case through the process. If you don’t meet all of these timelines, you can lose the case even if you would have otherwise won. Also, each civil law issue has a statute of limitations, this is the deadline by which you must start your lawsuit, or you may be prevented from ever bringing the case in the future. For example, most Illinois car accident claims must be filed with a county court within two years from the accident date.

If you are the person starting the lawsuit, you will be known as the plaintiff and the other party as the defendant. Your case will start with your lawyer filing a complaint with the court. This document will lay out the specific reasons you have filed the action. The court will then send a summons to the defendant, informing them of the lawsuit. The defendant will have a certain amount of time to file an answer, explaining their side of the issue. If you are the defendant, it is important to make sure your lawyer files all the proper documents and appears at every court date. Otherwise, you could lose the case, even if you didn’t do anything wrong.

After each side has filed its initial documents, discovery begins. Discovery can be a long process, during which each side gets to gather information for their case. Parties will question witnesses and take their statements, or depositions, and can look over documents or other evidence each side will use at trial.

Many cases will come to a settlement around the time of discovery. It can save a lot of money for both sides to come to an agreement about the damages one side owes the other. This is the most typical outcome. If there is no settlement, after discovery, the case goes to trial. Each side presents their arguments in court, and at the end the judge or jury decides who wins.

It’s not always worth it to pursue civil litigation. Oftentimes small claims courts don’t offer enough compensation to pay for the actual damages necessary.

This means you either get left hanging or take your case to the next level in the process of civil litigation.

Both of these situations require you to pay higher costs, and you’re going to take more risk (after all the time, hard work and expense there’s a chance the judge won’t award you anything).

First, take a good hard look at how much money you can realistically win if you go to court. If your case is best heard in small claims court, then take a look at what limits your state imposes on small claims awards.

It’s easy to find this information. Make a quick phone call to the courts (listed in the phone book), or take a look on the Internet. Government rules can change at anytime, so make sure the source you use is as current as possible.

Civil litigation isn’t going to be worth it if the compensation you are likely to receive isn’t enough. If the judge can’t legally award you an amount close to what you want, there’s no point in pursuing it. This option is only worthwhile if the stakes are particularly high. In most states, the difference between small claims limits and the amounts you can win from going to formal civil court can be quite substantial.

If you decide to pursue a case in civil court it can be very expensive. In fact, it can sometimes cost more than you originally wanted to ask for compensation. If you have a lawyer handling your case (you should if you’re filing a formal lawsuit), court expenses will be subtracted from the whole settlement amount, then the lawyer will take his fee (usually somewhere between 30-40%), then you get what’s leftover. If your case falls into this category, you might want to look at arbitration as an alternative.

With civil litigation, there is always a chance you’ll end up with nothing, no matter the limits you might be faced with. This is why it’s so important to look at your case very carefully and make sure it’s worth it before you file final papers in court. Go over your side of the story and make sure that your claims are valid. Make sure you can show without a doubt that the other party is truly liable for damages.

No matter the proof you have, make sure you can present your case in as short a time as possible. Practice in front of friends or family if you have to and see how much of a convincing argument you can make in just a few minutes.

Take a look at the other side’s case too. Is their argument sound? Can you counter their arguments? Will the other side be able to make you look bad in front of a judge? If you weigh these factors and still feel confident that you can get a higher award from a judge than from the adjuster, take the next step.

Now it’s time to see a lawyer. A lawyer might be able to help make your case more airtight and come up with good arguments as to why you deserve compensation. Nonetheless, make sure your case is good, because a lawyer won’t even want to consider it if he doesn’t think you can win.