I've never been sued, but I have sued someone - and there is a chance you will lose even if you are in the 'right'.
Ausprop can you tell us what happened?
"there is a chance you will lose even if you are in the 'right'". Requoted for emphasis - ANY litigation is at very best 50/50 because the system is an overloaded and incompetent mess. As a JP said to me the other day... may not have it right but what he said made sense, there are only 3 people that go to court, rich people, poor people and fools... think that was it! I think what most punters don't appreciate is the cost of pursuing anything, even if categorically right. Lawyers need to be upfront - if you commence a supreme court action you may as well transfer $200k into their trust account now so that you can be sure you can finish what you start. Of course being a lawyer cuts the costs of that!
I actually plan to write a lot of it up in a book one day because commercially I think it is quite interesting. I can't go into a lot of detail as some is yet to commence, some is ongoing but the issues covered:
- failure to complete an OTP purchase
- pursuit of specific performance against a vendor.... this one has been going for over 8 years, waited 14 months for trial judge to hand down decision and when he did it was a complete mess and I lost. fortunately I won on appeal. This case has everything in it from contract law, consumer rights, statutory demands, wind up applications, property seizure orders, caveat challenges, professional negligence, you name it it's there
- insolvent trading allegation for a liquidated company. got rid of that but they are a little scary as the insurers are not completely rational and have deep pockets
- a house that was supposedly complete and the bank settled on it. Claim against the developer and the conveyancing lawyer for misrep and negligence. The lawyers acted for both parties and their insurer had to come to the rescue on that one, bet they don't do that again.
that gives you a flavour for it... basically typical property/business related arguments that roll out when it all hits the fan