Reid Collins takes a practical approach to litigation. Our number one goal is to attain the best outcome we can for our clients. And because our fee structure almost always has a success-based component, when our clients succeed, so do we. That means every step we take is directed at achieving an outcome, not following a playbook. Our litigation strategy is designed to get our clients the best result possible as quickly as possible. Sometimes that means a favorable pre-suit resolution, sometimes that means winning at trial and multiple levels of appellate review. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and our practical approach gives us the flexibility to customize the right strategy for each client’s specific situation.
We help our clients avoid unnecessary costs and procedures. As a matter of standard operating practice, we build in a pre-suit phase to virtually all of our engagements. It is our general approach to perform extensive pre-suit work, including gathering documents, pre-suit discovery, engaging experts, and preparation of pre-suit expert reports. Our pre-suit work culminates in a draft lawsuit that we are prepared to file. However, rather than simply initiating litigation and triggering immediate transaction costs and arbitrary deadlines/parameters, we exhaust all reasonable efforts to find a pre-filing solution for our clients. We first seek to engage our adversaries in a business discussion surrounding the actual lawsuit that we intend to file. Best case scenario, both sides can quickly and efficiently resolve their business dispute. Worst case, both sides make an informed choice to proceed to litigation and willingly and thoughtfully incur the expenses of litigation. Our pre-suit process and experience have been almost uniformly positive. We resolve many of our most sensitive cases in this way. Regardless, even for the many cases where pre-suit discussions are unsuccessful, the process brings benefits as both sides are still generally more focused on the actual issues in dispute, and thus closer to a positive resolution than they would be otherwise
We further align our interests with those of our clients by building fee schedules for virtually all our engagements that provide lower success fee for a pre-suit resolution. In turn, our clients appreciate this approach because when successful it achieves the result that they truly want with maximum speed and greater net dollars to them. And should the case proceed to litigation they have great confidence that the litigation and its attendant costs were, in effect, unavoidable.
We focus only on what is necessary. Because we are not hourly-fee lawyers, we focus only on the work that needs to be done in order to actually try (and win) the case. Once a case is on file, we prepare it with a singular focus – that it is headed toward trial.
We take only the necessary discovery. We have learned that “over-litigating” a case often leads to many undesired results, such as:
- The excess activity and extended pre-trial phase of the case pushes the trial date further away on the calendar;
- Excessive motion practice and correspondence run up the out-of-pocket costs and increase expenses and fees for clients;
- A lengthy litigation process exhausts an adversary’s liquidity and reduces monies that could otherwise be used to fund a settlement; and, ultimately
- Educates the opponent.
Accordingly, we focus discovery on the key issues in the case and pass on non-essential discovery that is not likely to further our client’s ultimate goals.
We retain experts early. We know how to litigate complex financial cases and have been doing it in high-stakes litigation for decades. That experience gives us the wisdom to know that we are not experts in all the subject matter areas where our cases arise. So, to get us up the knowledge curve and put us ahead of the game, we bring experts on board early. They help us develop our litigation strategy from the original pleading, to discovery, and through trial.
We use jury consultants at all stages of the case. We only initiate litigation we are prepared to take to trial. Accordingly, we bring in jury consultants early on to ensure we identify the themes that will resonate with the jury at trial. And then we use those themes to direct our discovery efforts, streamlining discovery to only the things that really matter.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.