When a dispute opens up in a business matter, it's normal to try to resolve the problem through negotiation. Things don't always turn out well, however, and the threat of legal action may become necessary. Before you initiate business litigation, you may want to know exactly what it is you will be committing to. Here is a brief overview of business litigation.
Involving the Courts
While you may have engaged a business litigation lawyer at some earlier point, entering into full-on litigation means officially getting the courts involved. No, this does not mean that the whole thing is going to trial. Instead, it opens up some processes that can be very useful in arriving at a solution. However, you should be aware that if a resolution doesn't come from these processes, your options are to go to trial or drop the issue entirely.
Opening Up Discovery
One major new tool you have access to once business litigation has been initiated is discovery. In the American legal system, all sides in a civil legal complaint have the right to demand the production of documents and other items that may be pertinent to the case.
You should note, though, that discovery requires specificity. A party can't just demand that the other side dump all the info they have. Instead, you need to be able to tell the court what items you seek and what you expect to learn from them. In legal parlance, this is an issue of scope, and the scope of discovery also tends to be limited in terms of time frame, what's at issue, and what can be reasonably expected for someone to keep track of.
Suppose that your company was being sued for non-delivery of a contracted shipment. The side suing you could demand discovery of emails from the period of the contract, but they'd have to limit the requests to ones involving their people and the contract in question. In other words, no one can conduct a fishing expedition.
Conducting Depositions
Interviews with people who have knowledge of the matter are a key component of business litigation. For example, two companies in a dispute over control of a piece of software might seek depositions from coders, technical and information officers, third parties, and others with knowledge of what happened. These interviews are open-ended, and concerns about the admissibility of depositions are only resolved if a case goes to trial.
