Pre-Litigation Management

Disputes go through several stages before reaching a final verdict. Hence, the role of the lawyer and the legal consultant is perceived as a vital role in managing the dispute before it even begins. This role is mainly focused on providing the client with the sound advice and the proper consultation on the actions that should be taken to ensure getting his due rights in the event of a dispute and the documents that should be provided by his end in order to achieve the desired outcome in case of a dispute. Nour Attorneys & Legal Consultants team works in a highly professional manner to represent clients during all the dispute stages, starting with the pre-dispute stage; as this stage requires preparing all evidence related to the dispute and representing the client during the dispute stage. Therefore, the next step would be initiating litigation or defense proceedings during the litigation stages, and when judicial proceedings are taken against our client, we proceed with our work by doing the following:

Nour Attorneys & Legal Consultants relies on highly qualified lawyers and legal consultants to minimize risks as much as possible and control litigation costs that may arise in the event of a dispute with any other party. We do so by advising the client on the actions that should be taken on his end to ensure the realization of the client’s rights. Moreover, our team advises the client regarding the documents that need to be obtained amicably before the signs of the dispute arise or in case if he wishes to resort to courts later.

First: Pre-Dispute Stages

1- The Pre-Dispute Stage

During this stage, Nour Attorneys & Legal Consultants team of lawyers and legal consultants assists the client, before litigation procedures, to draft agreements, exchange quotations and services. If the work is ongoing between the concerned parties, we assist the client to provide or collect evidence that contributes to strengthening his/her position in case of a dispute, including, for example, guiding the client to send specific correspondence after reviewing it by our lawyer to deny specific facts or to obtain written confirmation from the other party regarding certain matters that may be a subject of dispute later.

The following are some examples of such cases:

1. In construction disputes, we ask the contractor (our client), that his consultant was late to provide him with approvals on materials or drawings, to contact his engineering consultant, by assistance of our lawyer, during the usual correspondence indirectly, and to notify him on the previous delays by his concerned employees and to ask him to avoid doing so in the future. Such correspondence is intended to be used as a piece of evidence in the future if the contractor was held responsible for undue delay in completing the project.
2. In labor disputes, we ask the employee (our client), whose salary has been reduced without his consent to write to the employer, by the assistance of our concerned lawyer, and request directly or indirectly to reconsider the salary reduction for not expressly or implicitly agreeing to it. This is especially the case if our client does not wish to take immediate action against the employer. Such correspondence is intended to ensure the right of our client to claim the salary difference in the future before the court if he/she resigns later. This becomes possible due to the existence of a correspondence proving that our clients, as an employee, did not implicitly agree to the salary reduction.

2- During the Course of the Dispute

Nour Attorneys & Legal Consultants team works through lawyers and legal consultants to assist the client in case if a dispute arises between parties by responding to the other party’s correspondence directed to our client, referring to the previous references after reviewing them and ensuring their consistency with the documents available to the client. Furthermore, we assist our client to avoid acknowledging anything that may lead to serious consequences later in case if the dispute was referred to the court.

Moreover, we send all the required legal warnings to the other party, either to discharge our client of the responsibility or to request the other party to remedy the breach, or both in order to resolve the dispute amicably before resorting to the court to avoid the costs of litigation before the courts.

3- Amicable Settlement Attempts

Nour Attorneys & Legal Consultants team works through its professional lawyers and legal consultants to assist our client in case if the client and the other party are willing to attempt reaching an amicable settlement of the dispute by attending the negotiation and settlement meetings with or without the client, as the client wishes. During such meetings, we present the client’s views with evidence to support his position and disprove the evidence provided by the opponent in order to strengthen the client’s position in obtaining a satisfactory settlement. All of this is done amicably within the framework, which we are authorized to act by the client to avoid court proceedings unless the client decides that he does not wish to settle the dispute amicably.

Second: The Benefits of Settling the Dispute before Litigation

There are several benefits for settling the disputes in amicable manner before resorting to courts or litigation. These benefits are for both the plaintiff and the defendant, as it is always preferred to attempt settling the dispute before litigation to enjoy the following benefits:

1- Saving Litigation Fees and Costs that the Plaintiff may not be able to Get Back

 You may have to pay a considerable fee for litigation or you may ask for the postponement of the litigation fee, but there are always possibilities of losing the lawsuits. You may think that you will win the lawsuit, however, there are always variables that may arise, such as that the opponent may have strong arguments or undisclosed documents. Hence, you should always try to settle disputes before resorting to litigation in order to avoid paying such fees, noting that in case of paying these fees and winning the lawsuit, the defendant may flee outside the country and may not pay you those fees despite winning the lawsuit as well.

2- Saving Lawyers’ Fees and Non-Refundable Costs

You will need to pay lawyer’s fees in order to hire a lawyer to negotiate on your behalf to ensure you get as much as possible of your due amounts before the dispute arises. However, these lawyer’s fees will not exceed the fees that may be paid during one stage only of litigation. Therefore, you will save about half of the expected litigation fees. Moreover, you should take into consideration the translation fees that are to be paid for documents that are not available in the Arabic language and other costs that you will have to incur during the litigation proceedings. You have to understand that there are costs that you may not be able to claim in the court, such as the costs of consulting reports, phone calls, transportation, etc.

3- Depending on Your Case, Getting Returns Today May Be Better Than Waiting for Tomorrow

If you can get 60-70% of the amounts owed to you today, this may be a better option for you in case if you are in debt and do not have another income source. Such option allows you to benefit from the settlement amounts that you will receive to handle and correct your own business today before tomorrow. Definitely, this may not be the optimal option at all times, especially if you have enough money to claim your full rights. However, you have to carefully assess your ability to continue the litigation and to pay the fees of lawyers, translators, etc. under your current financial situation before deciding to resort to litigation.

4- Avoiding Extending Litigation Duration and Directing Your Focus and Attention to the Future

We always advise our clients to avoid resorting to litigation as much as possible, especially if they were employees in case of the existence of settlement offers that involve minor differences than what is expected. This is due to our methodology that considers calculating all the amounts to be incurred, all the non-refundable costs and any other costs for the client to ensure that our client fully understands the consequences of rejecting or accepting the settlement offer and whether he or she wants it. Sometimes, when employees wish to take revenge and collect their dues through the courts, we bring their attention to the fact that resorting to courts is a difficult and time-consuming process which leads to complicating many matters, that include but are not limited to: (1)  the expiry of the residence permit, (2) temporary work permits, (3) receiving a good work offer, (4) the desire to leave the country of residence during the course of the case, and (5) running out of money during the litigation period, and hence, the plaintiff becomes unable to pay the due fees of lawyers, translators, experts, etc. Therefore, costs should always be calculated over time as well as the opportunity to get the desired result with losses that can be compensated by focusing on tomorrow and heading to a better business or trade opportunity.

Third: Guarantees of Settling the Dispute before Litigation

You should know that in order to resolve a dispute before resorting to litigation, you need to be sufficiently aware of how is this properly done by considering matter such as:

1- Always Try to Get the Largest Amount Possible When Signing a Settlement Agreement

You should always make sure to receive at least 33-40% of the settlement value when signing the contract.

2- Get a Guarantee of Payment of the Due Fee, Such as Cheques

You should always make sure to have access to a fast mechanism to ensure collecting your due amounts through checks in order to guarantee that a fine will be imposed on the debtor, or he/she will be imprisoned or prevented from traveling, as this provides a means to threat the debtor in case if he/she decided not to pay the due amounts.

3- Obtain an Executive Warrant from the Notary Public to Avoid Litigation and to Execute Judgments by the Executive Warrant

You should always make sure to sign an executive warrant under the settlement agreement and indicate the dates of payment or parties’ obligations to ensure that in the event of any breach of the said agreement, you can resort to the executive magistrate and avoid all dispute proceedings before the courts to enforce the warrant directly.

4- Always Make Sure to Consult Your Lawyer

In case if you decide to do all of this by yourself to save the lawyer’s fees, you should consult your lawyer and ask him to review the settlement agreement and direct you regarding the steps you should take. If there are meetings, make sure to consult your lawyer as well to instruct you concerning attending it by yourself and do not think you can do all of this independently, since lawyers must exist for a reason.

Finally, in case if it was not possible to resolve the dispute before resorting to litigation, our lawyers, attorneys and legal consultants at  Nour Attorneys & Legal Consultants, being experts on representing clients in litigation and arbitration matters, are ready to represent you in order to ensure you being in a strong position as a result of our preparations prior to litigation before the courts.