Defending a Civil Lawsuit

In today's economy, many small business owners are either filing lawsuits against vendors or having their vendors file lawsuits against them. This blog is intended to be a basic article about how to defend your business against a lawsuit.

Filing of a Complaint within Circuit Court of Cook County

A plaintiff vendor must file a complaint, which is a detailed explanation of what law was broken. For example, most vendors claim that the Defendant Business owner breached a contract for non-payment of a bill or service. A Defendant is given thirty (30) days to respond to the complaint and file an "answer" or otherwise plead. An answer is your response to a complaint. An answer is a paragraph by paragraph response to whether the Defendant business owner admits or denies the allegations alleged by the plaintiff vendor. Often times, a defendant Business owner does not have a legitimate defense to a complaint. The objective is either to settle and make affordable payment arrangements without a judgment on their record or to buy the Defendant business owner more time to offer a settlement, which is typically 1/3 to 50 percent of the total value of the claim. Often times, when a creditor has forced you to court, the asking price to settle the matter also increases. A one-time or two time payment(s) is the best way to settle a vendor bill and move on with your life.

In today's economy, debt buyers are purchasing old debts and filing lawsuits against Defendant business owners. In this case, the debt buyers have no way to prove their cases. Thus, the answer denies the claim and resolves the matter with the Plaintiff paying the Defendant for their court costs. For example, Portfolio Recovery filed a lawsuit against one of my clients for $800. Portfolio Recovery is a debt buyer, which means they have no way of proving or validating their debts. In our answer, we disputed the debt and requested that Portfolio Recovery validate the debt, which they could not do. Validating the debt is important and required under the Fair Debt Collection Act. Thus, since Portfolio Recovery could not validate the debt, they dismissed their case without prejudice. I insisted that my client be refunded their court costs by Portfolio Recovery. Thus, the plaintiff ended up paying the Defendant their court costs.

In conclusion, defending a lawsuit is a negotiation and it is important to hire an experienced corporate attorney. Often times, we can either negotiate the bill or successfully defend a lawsuit. Sean Robertson is a corporate, asset protection, and estate planning attorney. Sean Robertson can be reached at 312-498-6080 or 630-364-2318.