What Should I Do if My Business Gets Sued?

When a business faces a lawsuit, the primary objective should be to solve the problem efficiently rather than rushing into a courtroom. Most businesses focus on generating revenue and providing services, so spending significant time and money on legal fees is rarely part of a productive business plan. The first step should always be to explore all available opportunities to resolve the dispute and make the issue go away.

Retaining litigation counsel should generally be viewed as a last resort, used only after other resolution efforts have been exhausted. If the opposing party remains unreasonable or the conflict simply cannot be settled independently, bringing in professional counsel becomes necessary to protect the company’s interests. At this stage, lawyers can help navigate the complexities of the legal system while keeping the business’s goals in mind.

Even when litigation becomes unavoidable, a strategic legal approach must always prioritize the best business decisions for the company. Professional counsel helps ensure that every legal move aligns with the broader financial and operational needs of the organization. This balanced perspective allows business owners to manage the dispute effectively while staying focused on their core operations.

Learn more about Sean M. Sweeney here.

You can learn more about our Business Litigation practice as well as some of the specific kinds of case we work on, including High-States Commercial Litigation, Strategic Products Liability Defense, Trade-Secret Litigation and Corporate Shareholder or LLC Member Disputes.

TRANSCRIPT:

“The biggest thing really, other than consulting with counsel to find out what your options are and all those types of things, is to try to solve the problem. When it comes to businesses, they’re in the business of making money, doing what it is that they do, providing the services or making the goods that they make. Litigating cases and paying lots of money to lawyers is not part of anybody’s business plan. And so, really just try to find a way to solve the problem and see if you can make it go away.

Getting the lawyers involved—or at least lawyers like us who are litigation counsel, that means we’re going to be going to the courthouse—should really be after you’ve exhausted your other opportunities to try to resolve the issue. From that point, if you’ve decided or the other side isn’t being reasonable or it just cannot be resolved, then I think you can bring in counsel and we may have to litigate it. But even then, all along we’re going to be making an eye towards what’s the best business decision to make for your company.”