CASE RESULTS: BUSINESS LITIGATION.

When your business gets in a dispute, you need exceptional representation.  Profits, jobs, and your business reputation are on the line and you need lawyers who can take a complex set of facts and synthesize it into a compelling and persuasive story for the judge and jury.  That’s Madia Law.

Madia Law Takes a Different Approach to Business Disputes.
Most large firms that handle business disputes share the same, tired formula.  They’ll request hundreds of thousands of documents from the other side and review them.  They’ll ask you to produce hundreds of thousands of documents to the other side (after they review them).  They’ll bill you $300 – $500 per hour for their review of all the documents.  They’ll argue with the other side about what documents each side has to produce.  They’ll bill you for that too. Then they’ll file a number of motions to avoid trial and respond to the other side’s motions for the same.  They’ll bill you for that too.

Then, finally, after hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills – when you’re finally on the eve of trial – they’ll tell you to settle.

If that’s what you want, we’re not the team for you.  We’ve got a totally different approach.

•  First, we’ll engage in substantive settlement negotiations with the other side right off the bat (before you’ve invested a significant amount in legal fees).  We want to make sure we’ve got the other side’s best numbers on the table before your business invests in litigation.  If the numbers work – great – you’ve got a deal and saved legal fees.  If they don’t – that’s good too – at least you know what you’re fighting over.
• Second – we’re a trial firm.  We focus on trial from Day 1.  That means that we’re starting with our closing argument and thinking about what we want our last words to the jury to be.  That will drive our entire case strategy – from what documents we request to what witnesses we depose to what motions we make.  Even if you want to settle the case, our belief is that the other side will not settle for the best terms to your company unless its convinced that we’re going to win at trial.  We use litigation to help convince them of that fact.
•  Third, we focus on the discovery and documents that actually matter.  We’ll use Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) to control costs of document review, so you’re not paying hundreds of dollars an hour for someone to review thousands of pages of documents that don’t matter.  We don’t mark up LPO costs when we bill you – you pay what we pay (which is a fraction of normal document review costs).
• Fourth, we don’t fight or bicker over silly things.  Many lawyers waste time (and their clients’ money) by engaging in disputes and making motions that have no real, practical effect on the actual outcome of the case.  Because we’ve appeared in front of so many judges and juries, we know what matters and what doesn’t.  We won’t waste your money on meaningless fights.
• Fifth, we’re trial lawyers.  That means that we’re never going to tell you to settle because we’re afraid of trial.  We’re eager for trial – that’s the best part of our job.  If the other side is willing to do the right thing and give your company acceptable terms on the eve of trial, then great.  If not – then we look forward to proving your case to a jury.
• Finally, we thrive on flexible fee agreements tied to our success.  Most large firms will insist on hourly billing, so you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees regardless of what kind of result you get.  We’re a different kind of firm.  We’ll work with you to craft a fee agreement that ties success to fees, including contingency fee agreements and blended hourly/contingency agreements, or even flat fee/contingency fee agreements.

Madia Law Gets Business Results
We’ve got a great track record of outstanding results for our clients.  For example:

• We represented a businessman who sued his partner for breach of fiduciary duty.  Another firm handled the matter for a year until the dissatisfied client switched to us.  Prior to our representation, the best offer from the defendant was $2 million.  We took over the discovery and handled depositions and motions practice.  Two months before trial, the defendant settled for approximately $4.5 million.
• We tried a breach of fiduciary duty case to a jury on behalf of a minority shareholder in a limited liability company.  The defendant was represented by one of the top 5 largest firms in Minnesota.  Prior to trial, the largest offer by the defendant was $40,000.  The jury returned a verdict of $1.3 million.
•  We represented a small business that was sued in a wage and hour class action involving nearly 1,000 plaintiffs represented by one of the largest and best employment firms in the nation.  The lowest offer to settle by plaintiffs before trial was $2 million.  We tried the case, and the jury dismissed most charges and returned a verdict of just $13,000.
• We represented a small business that sued the downtown Minneapolis building it leased space from because faulty plumbing caused damage during a rain storm.  A large insurance company defense firm represented the defendant.  Though they offered only $50,000 before trial, the jury returned a verdict of $298,000.
• A small company brought us in to defend it in a trademark infringement  case just two months before trial on case that had been litigated for 2 years.  Two weeks before trial, the plaintiffs demanded $1 million as their last, best offer as they were “certain” to prevail at trial.  We tried the case and the jury returned a complete defense verdict so our clients paid nothing.  In fact, we’re now pursuing attorney fees against the plaintiffs.