If you’ve been injured or wronged and you feel like it’s time to sue somebody or something, here are things to do to prepare to speak to an attorney about it. As you go through these you should get a greater sense of the strength (or weakness) of your case.

1. PRESERVE EVIDENCE. Make copies of emails, documents, printouts, video, audio, employee reviews, whatever you have and put them in a file in a safe place. If it’s something on the internet, hit Print and make a paper copy, then use the Print Screen function (or “Grab” Utility on Macs) to make a .jpeg of the screen. That way you can show what it looked like, and the file creation is usually timestamped. If you’re injured and have seen a doctor, chiropractor, psychologist, nurse or anyone, make copies and records of their diagnosis. Bring all of this to the consultation.

2. MAKE A TIMELINE AND WRITE OUT YOUR VERSION. Document as much of your case as possible in your own words. Putting it in a chronological timeline is very effective to help the lawyers understand how events unfolded. This in turn helps them make a compelling case for you.

3. HAVE A VALUE IN MIND. Make an estimate on your own of the amount you want to demand from the other side. The lawyer may disagree with you and say the potential recovery is more or less than that, but often in cases with large potential settlements the lawyer will in turn engage the help of an expert – usually an accountant, actuary or doctor – who will help them place an economic value on your damages. How much are you injured? What have been the costs to you? You should have a sense of these before talking to your lawyer, or else it is difficult to respond to the common question from clients, “How much do you think this case is worth?”

4. WEIGH THE VALUE OF YOUR SUIT. There are times when it is critical to have a lawyer on your side. There are also times when it is impractical because of the cost of lawyers – if you are recover a small amount of money, it is very possible it will cost more in lawyer’s fees than the potential recovery. In these cases, you should consider small claims court. Since a lawyer sells his expertise in blocks of time, your lawyer has to figure out whether a case can reasonably recover something for you while covering the expense of his time; in a midsized American city lawyers typically cost $150-400 per hour. For cases that are taken on contingency (usually personal injury, certain intellectual property cases), the calculation is whether 33% of the recovery is enough to pay for the lawyer’s time.

5. TELL YOUR LAWYER THE WHOLE TRUTH. Your communications with your lawyer are confidential. Your lawyer bases his analysis of the strength of your case based on what you tell him – but the lawyer needs ALL of the facts in order to be fair. Sometimes potential clients hold back facts that would weaken their case and this is bad for everybody, because one of the worst things that can happen is to find it out once litigation has started and everyone has to scramble to recover. Obviously, if you submit sworn testimony and then change your story later it is very bad for you and for your lawyer. Tell your lawyer the problems you see in your case and he can begin to address them directly and work around them in his arguments. If it is a serious matter that would negate your ability to recover, it is better to get that out in the consultation rather than on the witness stand. As always, honesty is the best policy.

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