Have you ever been sued?

[H2Andy]

there's a lot of discussions on the board about people getting sued and the
high cost of defending suits even if you are innocent... so...

the question is:

have you ever been sued as

a) an individual; or

b) the sole owner or partner of a business.


(divorce doesn't count)

also, if you don't mind, how much did it cost to defend? what was your result?


(yes, i am an attorney, but i practice in the public sector, so this is not "market
data" for me; i ask out of curiosity)

 

[baitedstorm]

I've never been sued before, but I have sued someone. Daycare broke my daughter leg in 4 places when she was 8 months old. They tried to cover the whole mess up by saying her leg was broken prior to her coming into school. I only wanted them to pay for her medical bills, they only wanted to hand me crap. I sued them, took four years to settle. Jessi has her college fund ready for her now..

 

[fdog]

Was sued by an attorney that wanted all the negatives from an accident I shot photos of. This was while I was employed as a photojournalist.

The newspaper's attorney handled everything; case was tossed by the Judge under 1st Amendment; I had no expenses, the newspaper even paid me for my time in court.

All the best, James

 

[Diver0001]

there's a lot of discussions on the board about people getting sued and the
high cost of defending suits even if you are innocent... so...

the question is:

have you ever been sued as

a) an individual; or

b) the sole owner or partner of a business.


(divorce doesn't count)

also, if you don't mind, how much did it cost to defend? what was your result?


(yes, i am an attorney, but i practice in the public sector, so this is not "market
data" for me; i ask out of curiosity)

I've never personally been sued but I had a project once that ended in a legal action. Actually, it wasn't my project, it was a project from another guy but I took it over when he was having trouble with it. Upon looking through the formal documentation I discovered that there was no contract to do the work but the client had already been given a beta release to "play" with and blah blah blah. Anyway it looked weird but at that point I just assumed it was a matter of getting it sorted out.

I dug into it a bit and found out that the client had indeed never signed a contract for the work and hadn't paid for any of the work done. I had a meeting with them to determine the nature of the work being done and they were very evasive about formalizing anything. They said that they just wanted the end product and when it was delivered they would pay for the whole thing. I told them that I wasn't willing to run the project without a contract but that I couldn't put together a fixed result contract with the specifications in the state they were in (there were a lot of undocumented changes) so I told them I would have to pause to get the specifications in order or give them a time-and-materials contract for the rest of the work..... they just said "do whatever you need to do". I also asked them if they had any idea how much the project had already cost them and they didn't seem interested in knowing..... It just felt weird and I wasn't dealing with amateurs so it felt even more weird. I tried to dig for it but they weren't talking.

The meeting ended without agreeing to any clear actions and I had all kinds of alarm bells. I decided to put together a time-and-materials contract on the assumption that a fixed result contract would offer them too little flexibility. I also invoiced them for work done before the contract date. Sure enough they refused to sign the contract or pay the invoice or to discuss it. It just kept getting more weird.

I had another meeting with them and they were very agitated about being confronted with the contract but they couldn't/wouldn't explain it and just kept beating around the bush. I told them again that I wasn't willing to run the project without a contract and they told me again that they refused to sign a contract. They didn't mention the invoice at. Something was definitely not right.

The day after that meeting I stopped the project (I had been on the job a couple of weeks at this point) and handed off the mess to the legal department. What came out in the process that followed was that the department who had hired the company I worked for to write this software was doing and end-run around their own IT department and that signing the contract would have made it visible to their IT boss who would have stopped the project cold (in other words they didn't have the authority to outsource any IT activities). That was also the reason they wanted to pay for everything at the end of the project. They assumed that if they confronted their IT people with a fait accompli that they would have to accept it. They could have told me this but they chose not to. The company I worked for sued for payment of the invoice (which the client's company initially refused to pay because there was no contract--go figure) and the project was confirmed canned by the client's IT boss.

R..

 

[scubamate]

I was sued by a neighbor for invasion of privacy. I set up a security cam and caught he and his wife trampling my flowers. When the sheriff told them that there was a tape they sued. The judge made them pay restitution, my attorney's fees and all court costs. It didn't cost me a dime. I got what I wanted, left alone.

 

[RICHinNC]

one word for ya SM.......LANDMINES !!!

 

[Walter]

No, but I expected to be named in a lawsuit once. I had documents subpoenaed in the case. I delivered the requested documents at the time and place required. The plaintiff did not show up nor was a representative present. They then tried to have me held in contempt of court. Attorney's fees defending that action ran approximately $3,000. The judge ordered the plaintiff to pay those fees. The defendant's attorney's fees were just shy of $200,000 when he won the case. The plaintiff appealed. I don't know how high the fees have risen at this point.

 

[Firebrand]

Someone tried sueing me. The story goes like this. It was a few days before Christmas one year, and I was stopped in a right turn lane behind a lady in a Toyota Camry. (I drive a Toyota Tundra). Well the left lane next to us received a green light to cross the street we were waiting to turn on, so I tapped my gas pedal and bumped her very lightly, (lighter than being hit by a bumper car). Because my truck was much higher off the ground, my bumper hit her trunk, and pushed it in a little bit. I asked her if she was alright and she said, "Yeah, I'll be fine." and I told her that it would cost about $800 to $900 to fix her car by the time labor and paint were factored in. I told her the accident was clearly my fault, and my insurance would cover all her expenses (which they did), and it turned out that her car cost about $850 to repair, and my insurance company paid her medical expenses. I received a call from my insurance company telling me the case had been closed and was settled. Eight months later I received a letter from her attorney telling me she was sueing for "undue pain and suffering." They failed to tell me how much. The very next day, I received a call from my insurance company telling me that the case was re-opened because they also received the letter from her attorney. I asked my insurance company how much she was trying to sue for, the told me that she wanted $375,000. WHAT THE HECK!?! I barely bumped her, and there was absolutely NO damage to my vehicle what so ever!!! My insurance company managed to settle out of court for an undisclosed amount. It took about 6 months for the case to be settled. It only cost me $146 to handle the whole thing. My insurance rates didn't even increase because I had a clean driving record prior to that, and the damage to her vehicle was insignificant. I had to pay the $146 to handle the legal fees from my insurance company. It was the biggest relief of my life when I found out that I wouldn't have to cough up $375,000 to that woman.

 

[baltimoron]

I was highly involved in a lawsuit where we sued the State Board of Education for money to repair the state of our schools. The judge ruled in our favor, and yet we still have not seen the money. Thanks a lot, State of Maryland…

 

[drbill]

I've never been sued... what would they get? Thousands of copies of my unsold DVD's?

I have had several "good" opportunities to sue others... cases which lawyers suggested were slam dunks. In each case I elected not to sue. It just isn't in my character. I could be doing a LOT of dive travel these days if I had!

Dr. Bill