September 10, 2024
Tell someone who asks, “what type of law do you practice?” that you practice civil litigation, and you expect a blank stare, or perhaps to be asked “what is that?”
“Civil litigation” is lawyer speak, not common language that most of the public understands
THE ELEVATOR PITCH VERSION?
An elevator pitch is a marketing term for a brief description of what the speaker does, so named because it is supposed to be short enough – maybe 25 words or 30 seconds- to make a connection with a curious stranger in an elevator.
A typical elevator pitch response by a civil litigator might be:
“Lawsuits between businesses or people.”
That does not solve the problem. It tends to lead to another question, like “what sort of things does that include?”
But that just leads to more questions, or blank stares.
CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME EXAMPLES?
Civil litigation includes so many things that our website divides the list and information into two separate categories: “general & commercial litigation” and “personal injury and insurance litigation”. This is largely just a historical anomaly. At one time, our personal injury and insurance litigation practice was larger than all other litigation combined, and different lawyers were involved. Over time, the balance has shifted, and it is often the same lawyers involved in each area, but the two lists of examples are so long that we maintain separate categories.
The issue is that neither word “civil” nor “litigation” is a word that is used commonly by ordinary people. We talk about people being “civil” in their behaviour, and maybe that has some remote connection to the idea that the purpose of lawsuits is to enforce good behaviour. But that does not really help distinguish civil litigation from criminal litigation, or family law.
Which is the purpose of the adjective “civil” in the term “civil litigation” – to distinguish private lawsuits from criminal law, which also regulates bad behaviour, but in a very different sense. Crimes are offences to public order, while civil wrongs generally only directly affect the parties involved.
Some bad acts, like assault may lead to both criminal penalties and civil damages, because the bad act has both a public sense of making society generally less safe, and an impact on the injured person, for which they deserve compensation.
Which gets us to the core of “civil litigation” – most claims are about money. That may be a poor substitute for putting the wronged person back together, but the nursey rhyme about Humpty Dumpty was not wrong. Note the modifier “most” in front of claims- not even this truism is absolute. The law of equity permits orders for specific performance of contracts, or injunction to prevent, or even undo, bad behaviour.
THAT’S A LOT OF WORDS, BUT NOT EXAMPLES.
Lawyers say a lot because we hate to leave anything out. But our marketing materials do give examples. Here are just a dozen:
- Shareholder disputes
- Employment disputes
- Estate disputes
- Debt collection
- Construction claims
- Real estates disputes
- Personal injury claims
- Disputes with your insurer
- Indigenous rights
- Claims for beach of contract
- Claims for trespass to property
- Defamation
Not much of an elevator pitch when just listing a dozen examples takes more than 25 words.
SO WHAT CAN WEILERS LLP DO FOR ME?
If you need to go to court, you need a strong advocate to act on your behalf. Weilers’ experienced litigation team has the in-depth knowledge and skill to guide clients through all aspects of general, civil and commercial litigation, as well as personal injury and insurance litigation. Our services range from preliminary advice to complete representation and include assisting self-represented persons with specific stages of a court action.
If you have a dispute with your neighbour, your boss, about a contract, or other damage or injury, give us a call. We might be the right lawyers for you.