The moment you recognize you have a legal dispute, a focus on settlement should be embraced. The moment you walk into the courtroom for trial, settlement should be entertained. During all the thousands of moments in between, settlement should be your number one consideration.

Having a settlement state of mind is your greatest gift

Settlement negotiations are not a one-time proposition. Settlement is always your best option, emotionally, financially, spiritually, and psychologically.

And best options should be explored many times. Whenever your mind goes to your dispute, bring settlement into focus. Always. We call this having a settlement state of mind.

IN THE BEGINNING

Your first and best settlement opportunity arrives at the get-go when you understand that a legal dispute is in the making. Seize the day and begin planning settlement on one of these platforms:

• Meet in person and discuss
• Send a demand letter
• Engage in Automated Online Negotiation

Meet in Person and Discuss

You are ready to propose a meeting where you and your foe will collaborate on a joint problem. I bet you thought I was going to say the joint problem is your dispute. No, it’s no longer about the past. It is now about avoiding the rigors of what lies ahead, formal dispute resolution.

Your foe probably feels pressured, angry, discouraged, or threatened. These emotions do not provide fertile ground for joint problem-solving or compromise. How do you defuse these emotions and set the stage for conciliation?

Defuse your adversary’s anger and threats and propose teamwork

Call your adversary or send them an email or text. A suggested conversation would be:

We are having a difference of opinion. You feel I’m wrong and I feel you’re wrong. Then surprise your foe. But it is within our power to end this battle before we enter official legal channels. The legal system is very expensive and stressful. If there’s any way we can resolve our dispute, this is the time to do it. Would you be willing to sit down with a single objective: to get past this dispute before its emotional and financial tolls take hold?

You’ve acknowledged there is a dispute, but you are attempting to set it aside temporarily. You want to defuse your adversary’s anger and threats and propose teamwork. Your foe may be sufficiently surprised by your candor and willingness to talk, enough to momentarily set aside the conflict and listen. At this point, you may be well on your way to resolution.

 Questions are Opportunities

Suppose they question your motives? What if you hear: Why do you suddenly want a meeting? Or What makes you think it will change anything? This means they are genuinely interested and want to hear your proposal. Seize your opportunity!

Ask your opponent to come to the meeting without a need to blame or judge

Most likely, your foe wants to get past this conflict as much as you do, if not more so. But they are suspicious and need good reasons for meeting. You’ll give them those reasons. Consider the following proposal:

Propose a Meeting

Your adversary will most likely respond to this about-face with a willingness to discuss. You should continue, I‘ve got some ideas to share with you. It can’t hurt. How about lunch at                                      . Better yet, offer them the choice of lunch location [and seriously consider picking up the tab].

Smart Cookie Tip: You want them to feel comfortable and if location choice will achieve that objective, let your adversary make the choice.

Ask your opponent to come to this session without a need to blame or judge, but with a single focus on what it will take to conclude the dispute now. This session requires the maturity of participants able to look dispassionately past the dispute to the bigger picture. It encourages compromise simply because it will save the time, money, and emotion of legal procedures. Here, you meet in the middle, rather than bring in third parties who start the resolution tab running.

You’re Solving a Common Problem

If you follow these planning steps, your session can provide a level of comfort and purpose that you have not experienced around this dispute before. Why? For the first time, you and your opponent will have joined to solve a mutual problem (avoiding what lies ahead), instead of fighting each other.

A peaceful, neutral atmosphere is mandatory for optimum success in reaching a settlement

When your foe agrees to meet, you’re ready to set the meeting stage for you and your foe to become a problem-solving team. Three key ingredients make up your stage-setting process:

• Relax and bring along your personality
• Select an unhurried peaceful location for your meeting
• Create a no-fault truce environment

Setting the Stage with Personal Touch

A peaceful, neutral atmosphere is mandatory for optimum success. Typically, high anxiety accompanies the conflict resolution process. Studies show that people in conflict are more uncomfortable and rigid than in any other interaction. When high anxiety hits, courtesy and finishing touches go out the window. We retreat into formality.

With this rigid mindset, attempts at directing your meeting toward a solution dissolve into a rote, dry process too inflexible to work. The solution hides out amid a rigid, stressful atmosphere. There’s no motivation for conflict repair.

During times of conflict, creating a favorable atmosphere is the last thing on our minds. Yet, at these times personal touches need to be retained more than ever. When personal comfort is ignored, conflict is prone to recur or even escalate. This is the exact opposite of the condition you want in your session. After all, you’re there to solve your problem – and theirs.

Create a Peaceful Atmosphere

In a neutral setting, you and your foe will best be able to apply teamwork to solve your mutual problem

Your stage must be set to encourage a relaxed, personable climate. In this neutral setting, you and your foe will best be able to apply teamwork to solve your mutual problem – how to avoid the costs and aggravation of the legal system. The key is to instill comfort and relaxation in the session. That’s what setting the stage is all about. Don’t let the nature of conflict resolution leave these characteristics in the dust. They may be just the thing to trigger a solution.

Creating the Best Ambience

You’ve now set in place the first of three keys to optimizing success. You’ve added the personal touches of courtesy and personality. Now your stage needs to be set with location ambiance.

A carefully selected location creates a conducive environment for effective resolution. What environment puts you most at ease? Choose an ideal location for the meeting. Take this step before you contact your foe to set up the meeting. This location should be a place that will be politically correct for you and your foe.

Smart Cookie Tip: When you contact your foe, suggest the location you have chosen but also ask if they would like to choose the spot.

Pick a restaurant that is light, airy, and spacious, providing the best forum for open discussion. Setting the stage properly bestows your meeting table with all the ingredients for success. A park also is a good, neutral location that doesn’t have to incorporate the distractions of ordering and eating food.

 Make a mutual problem the focus of attention and you will change the program to truce territory

Truce Territory

You’ve set the stage with personal touch and ambiance. Now, creating a Truce Territory makes the ideal setting for resolution. Make a mutual problem the focus and you will change the ambiance to Truce Territory. Within this neutral environment, your foe can become your ally. Consider the following scenario: Your mission is to turn your pre-litigation battleground into a bargaining table.

Think of the stage you have set as Truce Territory for visual reasons. The ego surrounding your dispute will want to rear its ugly head many times during this session. Stress and anxiety are high. Each person is inclined to throw up his hands and say, I give up. Talk to my attorney from now on. Don’t give in to The ego. The ego loves litigation and spares no expense. The ego has no place in Truce Territory.

If ego takes hold, shift the focus back to solving your mutual problem. The legal process is the only enemy – expensive, emotionally draining, and time- consuming. You and your opponent are allied against it.

Each time the ego threatens to take over, remember you are in Truce Territory. You’ve probably discovered that ego doesn’t solve problems – it fuels them. This is particularly true in the middle of conflict. Ego gets very energetic. It’s hard to refocus the stubborn ego and it does take some trickery to do it.

The real enemy at this point is the legal process itself, and its cost in time, emotions, and money

The purpose of your meeting is to calmly create a settlement – not to argue positions. Each time your mind wanders back to the dispute and why you’re right and she’s wrong, breathe deeply and take a momentary time out. Realize that a truce has been called. It’s different this time around and you realize that peace is the answer – and your cost-effective solution.

 Suddenly, You’re Allies!

With these three stage-setting conditions in place, you have created your best chance for a solution. You have a new objective at this meeting: to be allied against a mutual problem. It’s a powerful change. The aim is not to place blame or adopt your old accusatory stances.

The only agenda of this meeting must be to head off the debris of the legal battlefield – bank accounts assigned to attorneys and emotions as they run Rampant – by settling the dispute now. The real enemy at this point is the legal process itself, and its cost in time, emotions, and money.

Send a Demand Letter

Settlement can also be accomplished by writing a Demand Letter to your opponent. You can prepare the Demand Letter yourself or involve an attorney in the process. It should be concise and lay out the reasons why your opponent is Liable for your loss, itemizing and substantiating the damages you are claiming. Ask that $                                 be paid within a specific timeframe, such as 20 days, to be followed by legal action (describe what the next step will be: Small Claims, Mediation, Arbitration, Upper Civil Court) if not paid.

If you plan to hire an attorney but want to keep the cost down, draft the letter and ask your attorney to put the finishing touches on it. Better yet, have your attorney put the letter on their letterhead. The letter should include a provision that the letter is not admissible in any later formal action.

If by your attorney, include a concise but compelling case analysis emphasizing the strengths of your case and the general pitfalls of prolonged litigation. Ask your attorney to project how much each party may spend on attorney fees going forward. It’s only a ballpark estimate but when people are embroiled in adversity, a taste of how much they may spend in their battle can cause even the most ardent fighter to back off. See our Demand Letter Form for a sample Demand Letter.

Engage in Automated Online Negotiation

Automated Online Negotiation (AON) is a novel new online platform like an auction where the prize is settlement. It’s quick. It’s inexpensive. It’s easy. And there is nothing personal about it, such a positive when disputing parties are at odds.

This type of negotiation, referred to as blind bidding, is available to anyone wanting to resolve a legal dispute that can be addressed by the payment of money. It is ideal for matters where liability is undisputed, where the unknown is how much money should be paid. It can also be utilized when liability is unclear to whittle a party’s offer to an acceptable number.

AON could be just the thing to get your dispute resolved at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end, where other processes have failed.

It’s really worth a try. What’s there to lose?

It’s  Do-It-Yourself

And it’s DIY, the perfect solution for the Legal Self-Helper. You and your disputing party can do it without attorneys, mediators, arbitrators, or the court. The usual paraphernalia associated with legal solutions is absent. No presenting your case, posturing, waiting around while everybody gets a turn.

All that’s needed is you and your adversary online not even at the same time, hopefully motivated to dispose of this mess that will undoubtedly disrupt your peace of mind. It’s more like a game that doesn’t require much stratagem other than arriving at price points. It’s not heady, like Chess. It’s more like Bingo. When the numbers line up you’ve got a winner.

Currently, this is how it works. It is all done on an online platform. There are three bidding rounds. Settlement offers hidden by the software are proposed by each party. If the bids come within a predetermined range the automated system selects the midpoint and that becomes the settlement amount, subject to the terms of a settlement agreement provided by these platforms. That’s pretty much it.

Some of these platforms even process payment, right there on the spot. You can do it any number of times throughout your dispute. So simple, yet quite effective since it could easily end the dispute that’s been your number one stressor for years, or could be.

An ADR Agreement Option

Negotiation is one of the optional provisions in our ADR Agreements where in advance of any other proceedings the parties proceed to Automated Online Negotiation. This is a sample provision:

AUTOMATED ONLINE Negotiation: Within 30 days of the date of this Agreement, the parties agree to submit their dispute to Automated Online Negotiation. If a settlement is not reached, the parties shall proceed to the next step under this Agreement.

Providers

AON is relatively new for legal disputes. There are a few private and court- sponsored providers. We expect new companies to spring up in no time at all.

 Private Providers

One private provider is National Arbitration & Mediation. Perform an internet search of automated dispute negotiation or blind-bidding dispute negotiation to locate other providers.

Court-Annexed Providers

AON is new to the courts also. They also see its advantage since it is being implemented in some locales to assist primarily self-represented parties in Small Claims cases so far. It has not reached the Upper Civil courts yet.

This 4-minute video was prepared by the New York courts to explain the automated negotiation process. Remember, this is New York; the laws of your state could be different. This process also provides the option of moving your dispute directly into Mediation if AON fails.

Smart Cookie Tip: See if this platform is available in the forum where your dispute belongs. This is quite a novel innovation for the very traditional court system, so use is spotty thus far.

The courts that do make the negotiation process automatically available make it readily accessible to you. For instance, in some California Small  Claims Courts, once the court receives the email address of all parties, an invitation to online negotiation is sent to each. The parties negotiate themselves via an online chat platform (like texting) and if they feel a mediator is needed, one is invited to the platform. If an agreement is reached before your court date, the case is dismissed.

AS YOUR DISPUTE GOES ALONG

Ideal Times to Detour to Settlement

An ideal time to explore settlement is immediately after you take the first formal step – whether by submitting the case to Small Claims, Mediation, or Arbitration or by filing a lawsuit in the Upper Civil Courts. Your opponent always takes you more seriously after you bring the case before a tribunal. Loss of control is an excellent motivator. When a third party – the court or dispute resolution system – threatens to take part in your dispute, your opponent takes a more serious look at settlement.

Any development in your dispute should trigger an opportunity for settlement. Here are some of the best occasions:

• Just before the lawsuit is filed
• Just after the lawsuit is filed
• At the Case Management Conference
• When Depositions are sent, before their expense has taken hold
• Before, during or after a Deposition
• Before or after Interrogatories, Requests for Document Products or Requests for Admissions are initiated
• Before or after a Motion is heard
• Any case change
• Before trial
• At trial continuances
• After the verdict

Our Mediation Coach goes into more detail about each of these pivotal settlement-provoking opportunities.

The Litigation Roller Coaster

The litigation game is an emotional and financial roller coaster ride. The case and each party’s attitude fluctuate as their dispute travels through the

various stages of negotiation or litigation. Each new fact discovered alters the parties’ postures. Like a recipe, each new ingredient changes the taste. As you ride out your legal dispute, one day you feel like the winner; the very next you won’t even have a faint memory of success.

Watch carefully for these pivotal dips. They can be filled with opportunities. These are ideal times for settlement discussions. It’s a time when people feel more vulnerable because their case takes on yet another complexion. Usually, the party in the lead has previously been in the caboose position and realizes that the lead position is short-lived indeed.

Pinpoint Other Settlement Opportunities

As your case evolves through the court system or Arbitration, continually evaluate whether you or your opponent is particularly vulnerable. Remember, whenever a new element is added, your case takes on a new dimension – and yields new reasons to settle.

Any change of circumstance that affects the dispute or the players provides fertile soil for settlement

For instance, when attorneys are hired substantial retainers must be scraped together. People begin to realize the magnitude of how much this is going to cost. This is an ideal time to propose another settlement session.

Be Creative with Settlement Options

Creative negotiations are always excellent tools to bring to your session. You may have achieved the right state of mind, but without settlement options, you may be out of luck.

To resolve your dispute, you will want something of value from your adversary, and it doesn’t have to be money

When you’ve spent time in the dynamic arena of negotiation, you realize the answer is all in supply and demand. What is being demanded, and what can you supply to satisfy the demand? To resolve your dispute, you want something of value from your adversary. Money is the standard way of compensating people. But compensation can come in many forms and many packages. It all depends on identifying a party’s needs. When you do so, you create settlement options.

For instance, you bought a piano from Adam’s Auction Company, and you feel they misrepresented the features. They refuse to refund the purchase price and take back the piano. The next step is to sue them in court. At your settlement meeting with the company president, you discuss alternative proposals.

An agreement is reached: you will give them three months to locate a piano with the features you were promised. As estate furniture auctioneers, they are best suited to find you exactly what you want. This arrangement will probably work out better than getting your cash back in the long run.

Another example: you’re having a battle with your local computer vendor. He says your warranty for hardware doesn’t cover your problem because it’s a software problem. You say it’s not. Instead of taking him to court, ask if he will fix the software problem. You’ll pay him if he can. If he can’t fix it, then it’s a hardware problem and he’ll honor the warranty.

The Magic Word: Barter

Whenever a dispute is in the brew, people are motivated – especially those under attack. If you are the responding party, identify your adversary’s needs. If you are on the demanding side, find out what your opponent is best suited to supply, and see if you can find a match with your wish list. Do you need a new printer? Maybe your adversary has an extra one. Do you need a tenant for your rental property? Maybe your adversary has a tenant for you. The possibilities are endless.

Money is the standard form of compensation, but compensation can be part barter and part money

What if you can’t pinpoint the ideal barter for you and your foe?

• If ready cash is not available, set up a payment schedule. You can offer a discount for early payoff as an incentive.
• Accept part cash and part services or supplies, or whatever.
• Accept an assignment of rights. For instance, if your opponent holds a promissory note, she can sign that over to you.
• Your adversary can stipulate to a judgment to be recorded on their real estate, and you can agree to refrain from collection for a certain time to give them a chance to pay.

There are more ways than you could dream of to come up with a settlement and to structure it. Allow your imagination to work with you on this. You can create your own solution to your problem if you’re innovative.

Settlement is always your best option and should be explored many times over!

If you’ve set your stage well and kept your focus firmly on reaching a solution to your mutual problem – avoiding expensive litigation – you should walk away from your meeting with a settlement. There’s no doubt that you can find solutions you never thought possible, especially with motivated participants.

You can also create your own Settlement Agreement to sign on-site while the fire is hot. Bring your computer and your printer (or forget the printer and sign by a digital signing app). See Settlement Agreement for a sample.

NOW – GO FORGE A FIRST-CLASS EFFORT TO SETTLE YOUR CASE!

Lawsuit Analyzer^© is the first ever case evaluation system for laypersons that uses a point method and includes the essential components of legal evaluation and feasibility analysis.  It’s like having your own legal aid or free legal advice.

TYPES OF DISPUTES ADDRESSED

Lawsuit Analyzer^© addresses civil disputes between people/businesses seeking money as compensation (not including family law, probate, bankruptcy, traffic, and criminal law).

WHAT IS LAWSUIT ANALYZER© ?

Lawsuit Analyzer^© is a powerful application that helps you assess – and direct – your own potential legal problem. Its purpose is to take your legal issue, demystify it and turn it into a manageable legal matter you can direct through the legal system, resolve through Alternative Dispute Resolution  (ADR), decide if you should hire an attorney to handle your case, or forget it and walk away.

We call this system Lawsuit Analyzer^© because it analyzes your dispute in a global manner, addressing multiple facets that should be considered when deciding whether to bring a legal action. Created by practicing attorneys, Lawsuit Analyzer^© and its extensive help files is a streamlined course in legal charting.

We call this legal charting because its 32 questions define your case in legal terms and identify the legal options available to you. By analyzing your dispute from many different vantage points, you will have the foresight to control the predictable elements. You will be able to answer these questions:

• What are the issues?
• Whose fault is it?
• What is your case worth?
• Will you be able to collect on your judgment?
• Will you be able to get your attorneys fees back?
• Will you have to travel the upper civil court system, or can you detour to Small Claims Court, Mediation or Arbitration?

These many vantage points cause you to reflect on your dispute and tailor a plan to control the consequences that may result.

 A Chart for Your Legal Course

Lawsuit Analyzer^© provides you with guidelines to chart your own legal course. It puts legal answers within your reach in a simple, handy way. You may still choose to consult with an attorney after you’ve charted your way through Lawsuit Analyzer^© , but your consultation will be far more meaningful after you’ve completed your own charting.

To simplify Lawsuit Analyzer^© we included just enough information for you to realistically evaluate your case’s feasibility and navigate it through the many available options. That direction may be through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) or through the courts. With Lawsuit Analyzer^© , you will gain the confidence that once came only through hiring an attorney. It’s like almost having an attorney in your computer.

Define the Issues and Save More Money

Lawsuit Analyzer^© serves another mindful purpose: Preparation. In your trip through the system, you’ll spend time defining the issues surrounding your dispute with the aid of our extensive Help Section which includes an abundance of information, not too much, not too little, just right.

This is not only valuable if you represent yourself going forward, but also in hiring a Mediator, an arbitrator, or an attorney. Time is money, and you will be prepared to describe the important issues of your dispute briefly and accurately. You will also be able to make informed decisions on how your valuable time and money is spent.

Put a Dollar Value on Your Case

Lawsuit Analyzer^© serves another valuable function. It values your case in terms of dollars. People are often way out of the realistic ballpark when it comes to case value. They remember Perry Mason’s courtroom shenanigans where anything was possible. That was high drama, not high court.

Unless your opponent’s conduct was close to criminal, all you really get is what you’ve lost. It’s as easy as that. Lawsuit Analyzer^© guides you to a realistic valuation of your case in dollars, and how much you will net after trial or Arbitration – after deducting the costs it took to get there.

Values

Values are important, but are often challenging for feuding parties to establish. Lawsuit Analyzer^© quantifies these elusive numbers by establishing Gross, Recoverable and Net Damages, along with settlement value.

Collectability: A Key to your Case

What value is a judgment to you if you have little chance of collecting on it? Why pour your precious time and money into obtaining a judgment when you may never receive the money it orders? This important step is often skipped when an attorney analyzes the legal components of your case, yet this analysis may be the most important of all. Your case may be a real winner, but you’ll be a loser if you can’t collect on your judgment.

Based on the research of your adversary’s assets, which you are prompted to perform, Lawsuit Analyzer^© assesses your likelihood of collecting. This is another valuable feasibility component you get from Lawsuit Analyzer^© .

Attorney Fees: How Much Will You Spend?

How much will you spend in Attorney Fees if you hire a lawyer and how much you will you get back? Lawsuit Analyzer^© estimates how much of your judgment you’ll give up to Attorney Fees. This, too, is an important factor which should be considered before you commit to your case. Can you afford these fees? Will your potential Recovery warrant this expenditure? Do you have an Attorney Fee Provision so you can recoup the fees paid?

Your Contract Options

Another essential feature of Lawsuit Analyzer^© is an assessment of your contract-based legal options. Do you have a Mediation Agreement, an Arbitration Agreement, or an Attorney Fees clause? One of these provisions gives your case better feasibility; all three make your case far more feasible. Why does it matter? If you don’t have an Arbitration provision and the Small Claims Court is not your Forum, you must travel the court maze to get your dispute resolved.

If you must pursue your case in the very complex Upper Civil Court system (aka The House of Horrors), any return dwindles as legal fees increase – because you will likely hire a lawyer to keep the wolves at bay. If you do and you are not entitled to an award of your Attorney Fees (this must be in the contract signed by all parties), your case feasibility is reduced, along with your net case valuation. Clearly, these factors affect the feasibility of your case.

Lawsuit Analyzer^© evaluates these important aspects that directly affect your potential Net recovery and whether it makes sense to pursue your dispute at all.

An Economic Answer

Why, you might ask, could I possibly need Lawsuit Analyzer^© , when my own attorney is just a phone call away? The answer is simple. This is YOUR dispute. You need to cover your back. You need to understand its feasibility. You need an analysis by a completely objective computer program that was built to evaluate legal disputes.

A Wise Strategy

How many of us bolt to an attorney at the first hint of a legal problem? Wait a minute! There are steps you can take before, or instead of, hiring an attorney. The court system is attorney territory, and rightly so. But the steps you choose to take may sometimes lead you away from the House of Horrors toward Small Claims Court or Mediation and Arbitration – territory now available to you, the legal consumer. How do you choose these steps? By working through Lawsuit Analyzer© which directs you to the appropriate Forum for your dispute.

Your Chance to Solve Your Problem

Consider these questions: Who best knows the circumstances of your problem? What caused it? Who are the parties? What dynamics are in play? And what will it take to solve it? Indeed, you know the answers. But there is another set of answers to some of these questions. These are the expensive legal answers an attorney gives you – many of which you can now obtain with Lawsuit Analyzer©.

If you obtain these answers with Lawsuit Analyzer^© , the expensive, time- consuming set of attorney’s answers may not be necessary or at least may be abbreviated. At any point, you can recite your entire problem to an attorney, for billable time. But first, give yourself the opportunity to create a solution that avoids or at least cuts down on costly attorneys and lawsuits.

Avoiding Negative Results

Over the course of long careers, we have watched clients achieve a wide spectrum of results from the conventional legal system. By use of Lawsuit Analyzer©, we are hopeful that you will avoid these adverse results we’ve observed too often:

•  Many spent vast amounts of time and money chasing after a righteous justice only to find out that justice is never clear cut. It is undefined and elusive.
•  Some discovered that their reasoning was correct, but the court or jury did not see it the way they did.
•  Others found they were correct, but it took too much of a toll emotionally or financially to prove their point within the legal system.
•  Some got a judgment but there were no assets to collect upon.
•  Still others collected on a judgment, but they were out-of- pocket for their attorney fees and case costs.
•  Others collected and financially gained, but the emotional drain was not worth it.
• Embroiled in the adversity of the court system for too long, some completely lost track of what their dispute was all about. They were just fighting.

Most of these results can be foreseen and avoided by adequately and realistically analyzing your case to begin with. The purpose of Lawsuit Analyzer© is to provide you with a way to control the predictable elements of your dispute, and to make sound case decisions based on legal analysis and feasibility.

THE BOTTOMLINE RESULTS OF LAWSUIT ANALYZER©

Lawsuit Analyzer© targets a variety of elements surrounding your dispute so you can make these very important determinations now, before spending your bankroll or dedicating vast chunks of your valuable time.

The Results

To provide you with the criteria you need to make these very important decisions, Lawsuit Analyzer© yields the following results:

• The likelihood of prevailing in your dispute
• The gross value of your case
• The net value of your case
• The settlement value of your case
• Legal options evaluation
• Collectability likelihood
• Feasibility Assessment

Seven Phase Analysis

To answer these important questions, Lawsuit Analyzer© performs a critical seven-phase analysis:

Phase 1, Legal Evaluation: Assesses your likelihood of winning based on the legal issues

Phase 2, Damages Assessment: Assesses the value of your case and your realistic recovery

 Phase 3, Legal Options Assessment:  Evaluates your case based on the contract options available for your dispute: whether you have an attorney fee reimbursement right and whether Small Claims, Mediation or Arbitration will be your Forum

Phase 4, Collectability Assessment: Analyzes your chance of collecting on any judgment you receive based on your adversary’s financial profile

Phase 5, Comprehensive Case Analysis: Quantifies your case value and settlement value, based on your Gross, Recoverable and Net damages, and assigns a case feasibility rating.

Phase 6, Feasibility Assessment: Takes your feasibility rating and recommends detailed steps based on your score.

Phase 7, Forum Assessment: Assigns the Forum you will enter Mediation, Arbitration, Small Claims, or the Upper Civil Courts

Phase 5 Comprehensive Case Analysis

Comprehensive Case Analysis, provides you with the following analysis of your dispute:

Phase 7, Forum Assessment

Forum Assessment, directs you to the appropriate Forum for your dispute and to our resources that will guide you through that forum.

GETTING READY FOR YOUR LAWSUIT ANALYZER© SESSION

If You Are a Plaintiff

Your Lawsuit Analyzer© session is best conducted in a quiet and secluded place. If you have a written contract, have it at your side. If your contract is oral, write down what you recall as your agreement. If you have no contract, you will be prompted to a response that fits your situation. If your dispute

is against more than one-person, complete Lawsuit Analyzer© collectively regarding all persons you feel caused your damage.

If You Are a Defendant

If a Claim has been filed against you, or threatens to be filed, work Lawsuit Analyzer© as if you are the person making the Claim against you.

After you Complete Lawsuit Analyzer^©

If you’ve decided to move ahead with your dispute, take the important pre- litigation steps described at Where & When to File Your Lawsuit.