What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss

Re:What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss by bloak on Friday January 25, 2019 @04:59AM (#18996811)

Beware of this. "Loser pays", implemented literally, would be a bad thing. What you should do, which is what England has, is "the party whose unreasonable behaviour led to the case coming to court pays". Can someone suggest a concise way of expressing that, to help voters avoid a bad tort reform?

In case it's not obvious, here's an example of where it matters. Alice damages Bob's car. Bob offers to settle for £100. Alice says, no, I want £500. Bob says, don't be silly, you can have £150, though that's too much, in my opinion. Alice sues Bob. The court decides that Alice should be compensated, so Alice "wins", and damages should be £80. Who should pay the court costs of £500? (And what if the damages were £300?)

Perhaps everyone already understands that "loser pays" means "the party whose unreasonable behaviour led to the case coming to court pays", but I can't help being suspicious that a reform of the legal system that would drastically reduce the number of cases coming to court might be sabotaged in some way by the people with vested interests who will implement it.

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Re:What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss by morganvachon on Friday January 25, 2019 @07:35AM (#18997390)

> In case it's not obvious, here's an example of where it matters. Alice damages Bob's car. Bob offers to settle for £100. Alice says, no, I want £500. Bob says, don't be silly, you can have £150, though that's too much, in my opinion. Alice sues Bob. The court decides that Alice should be compensated, so Alice "wins", and damages should be £80. Who should pay the court costs of £500? (And what if the damages were £300?)

Ok, you lost me on the part where the at-fault party (Alice) is owed compensation by the not-at-fault party (Bob). This makes absolutely no sense.

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Re:What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss by pif on Friday January 25, 2019 @09:00AM (#18997878)

> Alice damages Bob's car.

He just inverted the names: Bob damages Alice's car.

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Re:What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss by kyrieeschaton on Thursday January 24, 2019 @10:55PM (#18995443)

This effectively makes it impossible for a small plaintiff (or defendant!) to justify the risk of fighting anyone with a multi million dollar legal team at their disposal.

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Re:What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss by ldiracdelta on Friday January 25, 2019 @03:46AM (#18996501)

If the case is likely to win, then a lawyer or investor will pony up his own cash for a cut of the outcome. This means that only cases that people feel are overwhelming will be litigated. Marginal cases to bleed your enemy dry do not work, because they work against you.

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Re:What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss by harimau777 on Friday January 25, 2019 @06:12AM (#18997080)

Isn't that a bad thing since likely to win doesn't map directly to being right? For example, even if I was seriously wronged, my opponent could have access to greater legal resources, or my position could be socially unpopular, or the situation could be difficult to prove, etc.

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Re:What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss by CaptainZapp on Friday January 25, 2019 @06:12AM (#18997082)

then a lawyer or investor will pony up his own cash for a cut of the outcome.

This is outright illegal in countries where lawyers are not allowed to work on contingency and may get a lawyer barred.

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Re:What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss by arethuza on Friday January 25, 2019 @05:21AM (#18996893)

Certainly litigation in the UK can be very difficult to stop once started as if either side gives up there is a good chance they will be expected to pay the other sides fees up to that point.

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Re:What Happens When You Try to Sue Your Boss by jsmith99 on Friday January 25, 2019 @04:09AM (#18996617)

In the UK, claimants using a 'no win no fee' deal usually buy After The Event insurance to protect them against having to pay the other sides' costs.

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