Why Hire a Civil Litigation Lawyer in Addition to Your Attorney?
Clients often wonder when litigation begins why their attorneys might encourage them to hire an additional lawyer. A civil litigation lawyer is something of a specialist who uses their skills to move a lawsuit forward. Whether you're the plaintiff, a defendant, or an interested party, there are at least three reasons why you may need to hire a lawyer who specializes in civil litigation.
1. Address Limits to Your Current Attorney's Experience
Your lawyer is probably great at their job. They're just not a litigator. If you've hired a contract lawyer, for example, most of that person's work is going to be poured into making sure you don't end up in litigation. Even the best of the bunch, though, can only do so much. The goal of such an attorney is to produce a contract that is enforceable and will stand up in court. However, making it stand up in court if someone picks a fight over it isn't their job.
That's where the civil litigation lawyer enters the picture. Rather than focusing exclusively on the agreement—what your original attorney is supposed to do—they'll focus on the process of litigation. It requires a different set of experiences working in the law.
2. Take Advantage of Established Relationships
When someone does civil litigation regularly, they start to form relationships with parties who can provide help. For example, a civil litigation lawyer might know several Constitutional law scholars who can help them present an argument about why the court ought to render a summary judgment. A civil litigator can quickly match experts to cases, too. They'll have a Rolodex full of experts they can bring in to testify, participate in depositions, or provide reports.
3. Use Their Negotiation Skills
Most litigation never reaches trial. It's not always legal maneuvering that keeps things from going to trial. Instead, the main driver is the settlement offer. To arrive at a settlement, though, you oftentimes have to be able to negotiate.
Suppose two companies are fighting over the right to use a piece of intellectual property. A skilled negotiator might identify a way to provide a license to the alleged offending party in exchange for some degree of compensation for past faults and future payments. This approach can potentially save millions of dollars in some cases because the sides can get back to business rather than spending each other into a hole with legal battles.