Much of our practice involves working with in-house counsel for corporations. These are generally attorneys who manage litigation and legal projects for a company. Over the years, in-house counsel and corporate officers have learned that they can save significant money by following a few simple rules . . . and so can you!
1. Distill the relevant facts. It is probably easier just to make an appointment to come in and see us to "tell the story" - and we are happy to have you do that if you like - but you can really save significant fees by writing down the relevant facts. It doesn't have to be fancy and it doesn't have to be perfect: Just make a bullet point list of what you think are the most important facts. Try to go in chronological order and be as specific as you can be with regard to dates, spellings, and the sources of the "facts." Some cases can be put on a page or two if done succinctly. If you are referencing documents, be specific as to pages or sections that are important. We will certainly be asking questions later - and we may uncover some facts which are very relevant to lawyers that were not obviously so to our clients - but this makes for a great head-start.
2. Gather the relevant documents. Experience tells us that whether the case involves ten thousand dollars or ten million dollars, there are generally fewer than ten documents that are considered important documents (contracts, letters, emails, handwritten notes, photographs, etc.) Go ahead and put those together ahead of time and attach them to the bullet point list described above. There will probably come a time where the attorney is going to need to review (and probably produce) all the documents that are not only relevant, but even "reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence" - but that is not necessary at the very outset.
3. Define the goals. Would it surprise you to hear that many times prospective clients are not even sure what they want? In fairness, it really does take legal training and experience to know what the available remedies are in most cases. Still, forget about that and just take some time to consider what you really want: Your money back? A new [whatever]? A release from certain contractual obligations? Money damages for [make a list]? Now is a good time to define goals for prospective litigation.
Recently, one of the firm's corporate clients prepared a notebook for us with all of these items in it. This enabled us to move much more quickly and the client saved not only time but literally several thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees. Again, we are happy to represent you no matter how you wish to proceed, or how involved you want to be in the initial stages, but perhaps this is a way for you to be the most efficient with your litigation dollars.