“Nothing Gained – Much Lost” | The All or Nothing Approach to Litigation

“Nothing gained, much lost” describes lost opportunity. In our field of estate, trust, and elder financial abuse litigation, it can describe lawsuits gone wild.

Most estate and trust litigants have not experienced the rigors of litigation. Once experienced, few would describe it as fun. They might describe it as a necessary choice.

Undue influence on elders that results in estate, trust or elder financial abuse is often the lawsuit’s catalyst. Once started, lawsuits should not take on a life of their own. Civil litigation is designed to gain civil ends. Not to become life’s sole focus.

The common end is the recovery of money or real property. And, the recovery is often following a pretrial settlement. Some 97% of all civil cases are resolved prior to trial.

Courts, short of time and staff, encourage these settlements. This is particularly true now because of COVID-19 delays. Trial dates – court or jury – are long distant. Case mediations and settlements may be accelerated.

Many courts are making it clear that litigants with unresolved cases will wait many months if not years before their cases will go to trial. So, pushing a case all the way to trial may increase the odds for a “nothing gained – much lost” result.

Hackard Law knows how to try cases and how to settle cases. We know the difference between “nothing gained – much lost” and a reasonable resolution to disputed claims.

We focus on significant cases where we think that we can make a substantial difference where there is a wrongdoer who can be made financially accountable for their wrongdoing.

Hackard Law: for Abused Beneficiaries and Heirs.