Management should be easy

Managing the cost of civil litigation should be easy when it involves technical issues.  But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be inexpensive.  Nor that you will know at the start exactly what the final cost will be.

What it does mean is that there is a simple process that can be followed.  A process to keep you and the client informed at different stages of litigation of the costs-to-date and the estimated total costs.  And keep you and the client informed with an increasingly accurate assessment of final costs.  There is a process for managing the financial realities of civil litigation (Ref. 1).

Why must cost be managed?

The cost of civil litigation must be managed in some way because:

1. Civil litigation can be expensive (Ref. 1)
2. Accurately estimating the cost of civil litigation is difficult (Ref. 16, 17)
3. Clients generally don’t understand the financial realities of litigation (Ref. 1)

If you can measure something you can manage it.  Put another way, originally, ‘What gets measured, gets done’ (Ref. 2).

If you are measuring something on a regular basis you can manage and control it.  If you take the measure of the costs of civil litigation – estimate, up-date, and evaluate the costs, periodically, for example, at the different stages of litigation, you can manage and control the costs.

Managing and controlling costs means ensuring you input the most up-to-date costs into your periodic re-assessment of the merits of continuing an action.

Categories of cost in civil litigation

Fortunately, what could be easier than noting three main categories of cost in civil litigation involving technical issues?:

1. Legal costs
2. Cost of the role of the expert at the different stages of an action, and,
3. The cost of the forensic engineering investigation

Key stages in cost estimating

Stages in civil litigation

Then obtaining estimates of these costs and updates at the following key stages of civil litigation as recommended in practical handbooks of civil litigation (Ref. 1):

1. Initial preparation and pleadings,
2. Preparation and completion of discovery,
3. Preparation and completion of ADR (Alternate Dispute Resolution)
4. Long-range preparation for trial, and,
5. Short-range preparation for trial.

I added Item #3 on ADR to the recommendations in legal handbooks because new technical data might arise in discovery that would merit an update of estimated costs.  Also, because the vast majority of cases do not proceed to trial (Ref. 1).

You as counsel would estimate your legal fees at these successive key stages and add them to the other two categories of fees.

You would work with the expert in estimating the second category of costs, the role of the expert at the different stages of civil litigation (Ref. 3 to 14).

The professional engineer would estimate the third category, the cost of the forensic engineering investigation.

Stages in forensic engineering investigation

Updated cost estimates can be given for the forensic engineering investigation at the following stages of an investigation:

(Ideally, much of the engineering investigative work would be complete by key stage #2 in the above, Preparation and Completion of Discovery.  In fact, in a perfect world, civil litigation wouldn’t be entertained at all in a case with technical issues until a forensic engineering investigation had been completed, the cause of an engineering failure or an accident determined, and the technical merits of the case assessed):

1. Visual assessment of the site and preliminary planning of the investigation
2. Field investigations – often after documenting damage to the structure, also after determining site conditions
3. Research
4. Follow-up investigations
5. Data analysis

Counsel would take these updated investigative costs from the professional engineer, add them to the legal costs, and to the cost of the role of the expert in litigation, to obtain total, updated, civil litigation costs, and the client advised.

Then do this again at key stages of the engineering investigation and at key stages of the civil litigation process.  The merits of the case would be reviewed on each occasion and the client updated so that he or she could make a decision on whether or not to continue the action.

The estimating of forensic engineering investigative costs assumes a full scale investigation – same as counsel is encouraged in legal handbooks to assume a full scale trial when estimating costs (Ref. 1).

Reporting costs to the client

It’s important when counsel is reporting costs-to-date plus estimated future costs to express these costs as a percentage of the cost of the failed structure and/or the likely award.  Do this for estimated costs that err on the high side.  This percentage can be quite enlightening with regards to the wisdom of continuing the action.

Few clients realize how much it costs to become involved in litigation (Ref. 1).  Nor how difficult it is for counsel and the expert to estimate total costs (Ref. 16, 17).  Some cases and engineering investigations become very complicated.  A stepped approach to managing costs and frequent updates helps the client deal with the uncertainty.

The approach is not unlike the cost control procedures in the field of project management – constant re-evaluation and updating based on new data (Ref. 15).

It’s difficult to accurately estimate the cost of forensic engineering investigation because of the unknowns (Ref. 16, 17).  Counsel should help the client to understand, however, that the difficulty estimating costs decreases as technical data becomes available during key stages, and the accuracy of the cost estimate increases.

Counsel must ask for these updated cost estimates at key stages because it takes time to update the scope of a forensic engineering investigation and update a cost estimate, but, it’s worth it.

Summary

To summarize, as part of your on-going assessment of the merits of a claim or of a defense,

1. Obtain the very approximate forensic engineering investigative costs from the engineer at the start of an action,
2. Confer with the professional engineer and together determine the cost of the expert’s role at each stage in the civil litigation process,
3. Add your legal costs to the engineering investigative costs and to the costs of the expert’s role in the civil litigation process to obtain a total cost,
4. Brief your client at the start of an action on the estimated total costs and the legal and technical merits of the action, including comments on the difficulty estimating costs by you and the expert.
5. Then do this again – estimating total costs – at key stages of the engineering investigation and at key stages of the civil litigation process, review the merits of the case again, and update the client at each stage, and, finally,
6. Express the estimated total costs at each stage as a percentage of the expected award, which can be enlightening.

It sounds easy managing the cost of civil litigation, and it is easy – a well identified step by step process – and counsel and clients can benefit from that process.

Counsel does need to be alert though considering that many of you handle many files.  I’ve heard “…hundreds of files…” by one senior lawyer, “…lots…” by another, and “…dozens…” by a young lawyer.  So, be careful and pay attention to individual cases and manage the cost of civil litigation as easily as it can be done.

***

The cost of civil litigation and the scope of forensic engineering investigation

Before a professional engineer can actually estimate costs, the scope of a forensic investigation must be planned, based on an initial hypothesis of the cause of the failure or accident.  This planning takes time and involves identifying:

1. The methods of investigation,
2. The tasks associated with each method,
3. The people, expertise, and skills needed to carry out the tasks
4. The supplies and equipment needed by the people, and
5. The time to carry out the tasks

Only after the scope of an investigation is developed, and updated at key stages, can the cost of a forensic engineering investigation be estimated.  This takes time, estimating, but if done properly the client knows approximately where he’s at cost-wise and where he might be going at any particular stage.

The actual scope and cost of a forensic investigation comes into better focus as each stage is reached and passed.

The estimating of forensic engineering investigative costs assumes a full scale investigation – same as counsel is encouraged in legal handbooks to assume a full scale trial when estimating costs.

And an assumed full scale forensic engineering investigation that responds to the justice system’s requirement for a thorough and reliable investigation that leads to an objective opinion as to cause.  (Ref. 4, 18 to 21).

 References

1. Stockwood, Q.C., David, Civil Litigation, A Practical Handbook, 5th ed. 2004, pg. 14, Thomson Carlswell
2. Personal communication, Osmond, NSLS, Jack, Owner, Affinity Contracting and Environmental Ltd., Halifax and Ball, P.Eng., Ken, Former manager, Imperial Oil Refinery Ltd. (“What gets measured, gets done”)
3. Steps in the civil litigation process, published, August 28, 2012
4. Steps in the forensic engineering investigative process with an Appendix on costs, published July 15, 2013
5. The role of a professional engineer in counsel’s decision to take a case, published June 26, 2012
6. The role of a professional engineer assisting counsel prepare a Notice of Claim, published July 26, 2012
7. The role of a professional engineer assisting counsel prepare a Statement of Claim, published September 11, 2012
8. The role of a professional engineer assisting counsel prepare a Statement of Defence, published September 26, 2012
9. The role of a professional engineer assisting counsel prepare an Affidavit of Documents, published October 4, 2012
10. The role of a professional engineer assisting counsel during Discovery, published October 16, 2012
11. The role of a professional engineer assisting counsel during Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR), published November 16, 2012
12. The role of a professional engineer assisting counsel prepare for a Settlement Conference, published November 29, 2012
13. The role of a professional engineer assisting counsel prepare for a Trial Date Assignment Conference, published December 12, 2012
14. The role of a professional engineer assisting counsel prepare for Trial, published, December 19, 2012
15. Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Most recent edition, Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, USA
16. Difficulty estimating the cost of forensic engineering investigation, posted July 23, 2013
17. Why the difficulty estimating the costs of forensic engineering investigation?, posted September 1, 2013
18. Civil procedure Rule 55, Nova Scotia
19. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Guidelines for Failure Investigation, New York, 1989
20. ASCE, Guidelines for Forensic Engineering Practice, New York, 2003
21. ASCE, Guide to Investigation of Structural Failures, New York, 1986

Bibliography

1. Bent, James A. and Humphreys, Kenneth K., Editors, Effective Project Management Through Applied Cost and Schedule Control, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1996

Update

This item is an update of a recently published item on managing the cost of civil litigation.  The update basically involved expanding the section above, ‘Why must cost be managed?‘.  The section is expanded by adding and explaining an important managerial concept, and it’s application to civil litigation, that, ‘If you can measure something you can manage it’, or, put another way, ‘What gets measured, gets done’.