Category: civil litigation

A bad settlement is better than a good (won) lawsuit. Lawsuits are expensive, time-consuming, stressful and risky (their outcome cannot be predicted with complete certainty).

Always try to reach an agreement. A significant proportion of civil lawsuits can be resolved through settlement with a little goodwill and a minimum of decency. Use a lawyer with the appropriate experience as a mediator to bring the parties to the table and help them work out the most appropriate solution. This can save a lot of time, money and stress.

If we have a monetary claim against someone, we must ensure that only the principal amount is taken into account when determining the value of the claim.

Interest must be included in the claim, but it is not included in the value of the claim. This is important in terms of the amount of the procedural fee and jurisdiction.

In any court proceedings, we must ensure that we identify the court with jurisdiction and competence.

A claim filed in the wrong place will not be lost, as the courts will forward it to the competent authority, but due to the heavy workload of domestic courts, especially those in the capital, such mistakes can result in a delay of several weeks or even months.

Let us endeavour to assist the proceedings as correctly as possible.

Delaying tactics – in addition to being punishable by a fine – may turn the judge against us, which in cases where there is considerable scope for judicial discretion may even result in losing the case. Let us never forget: judges are human beings too!

Court hearings are, as a general rule, open to the public. We must accept that anyone can sit in on our trial as an observer.

However, we should be careful not to invite friends, relatives or acquaintances. On the one hand, because judges do not like this, and on the other hand, because we cannot always be sure whether any of them will be needed as witnesses later on. This could be prevented if they were present in the courtroom during the earlier stages of the trial.

Unfortunately, the lawsuit is not about the truth, but about provability.

We must always keep in mind that what seems obvious to us will only be obvious to the judge if we can prove it. In civil proceedings, there is no ex officio evidence; even if the judge sees what evidence would help us, he or she will not order it if we do not request it.

During a trial, the court is bound by the motions and legal statements submitted by the parties.

Therefore, if we are entitled to something on legal grounds "A" but try to enforce our claim on legal grounds "B", we will lose. We should not trust that the court will take this into account even in the case of a wrongful claim, just because we feel that we are right.

If we decide to go to court without a solicitor, we cannot expect any meaningful assistance from the judge.

However, if we notice that the judge is emphatically drawing our attention to the fact that we have the right to seek legal representation during the proceedings, this usually means that we are doing something wrong. At this point, at the latest, it is time to consult a solicitor.

In the event of litigation – or even out-of-court proceedings – we should also make use of the services of a solicitor.

It is relatively easy to acquire knowledge of substantive law from specialist books, the internet and neighbours. We solicitors are sometimes astonished at the level of knowledge that some clients have of the legal material relevant to their case.
At the same time, enforcing the law also requires knowledge of procedural law and judicial practice. Laypeople rarely have this knowledge. What seems clear and logical from a substantive legal point of view can be completely lost or confused due to procedural errors.

We receive a summons from a court, which states that we must appear at a hearing because someone has sued us. It seems clear that the person is not right. How seriously should we take the summons?

Very seriously. First of all, what is obvious to common sense is not necessarily so under the law. More importantly, however, if we fail to appear at the first hearing as the defendant and have not submitted a written defence, the judge may immediately order us to pay the claim in accordance with the court order. If we have appointed a legal representative and they attend the hearing, there is of course no failure to appear.