When Do You Really Need a Lawyer?

Dr_Harm asks: "I recently had the misfortune to encounter a CEO who had just received the Klez virus. Apparently, he believed the 'From:' header and accused me of not only authoring the virus, but deliberately and maliciously targeting him and his organization. Normally, clueless people like this don't bother me, except he was inclined to sue me and report me to the FBI. Of course, he's got more money and lawyers than I do, and could probably have made me miserable even though I'm completely innocent... but it raises the question: How do I know when I need a lawyer?"

"Clearly, once I've been served with legal papers, a lawyer is necessary. But I'm guessing that there are situations where having a lawyer before it gets to that point would be helpful. I'm interested in some general guidelines for when I should pick up the phone and call a lawyer. I'm especially interested in tales of 'I waited to long and got burned' as well as 'I got a lawyer so early it was smooth sailing'. Like most people, I make a decent living, but I cannot afford high legal bills for very long.

For those who are interested, the CEO in question decided to simply report the incident to the FBI. My guess is that the Feds logged the complaint for their statistics and then dropped the matter. However, the brush with someone with enough money and power to drain me financially has left me distinctly shaken..."

Comments

Re:If you have to ask...

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

IANAL, but - depending onhow nice you want to be- this looks like a real opportunity to bruise a tyrant.

Get a lawyer who understands the lack of merit in your opponents case.

Have him take you up on spec.

It will be VERY easy to conclusively demonstrate that you are not the author of the virus, and that Klez proliferates by spoofing sender addresses.

Take your sweet time in playing the trump card, make this expensive, long and time-consuming for him.

You can probably counter-sue for him pressing a nuisance suit. This is what will be salt on the meat for your lawyer to get involved. The minimum will be a suit to recover expenses.

Make sure that you have your lawyer agree in writing that if you are not successful in pressing suit, his fees are waived. Incentivises him, and removes your financial exposure. Hell, if you have a good laywer, he could spell this whole scenario out to the plaintiff lawyer, and you walk out of the room with a check and no appearance in court!

When you are done, you will have used this fellow's tools of abuse against him, and he might think twice before committing this sort of institutional violence again.