San Diego Trial Lawyers

“If We Can’t Win Your Case, It Probably Can’t Be Won” ™

When losing is not an option, call us and have a free consultation with one of our Trial Lawyers. When other law firms tell you it can’t be done, we often do. Whether you are the person filing or receiving the state or federal lawsuit, our staff can help. In the last 34 years as a law firm, our business attorneys have learned many tricks of the trade, and we can share them with you to offer you the advantage you can’t be without. We have gone against some of the largest law firms in San Diego, California, and the nation. These were great litigation attorneys but some of them had a few tricks up their sleeves: they trained us well.

Our San Diego Trial Lawyers have represented all sizes of companies, and the fact that one of the country’s top negotiators is our lead attorney has helped tremendously. Our lawyers rarely go to trial; we resolve the problem, and you save a lot of time as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation costs. We treat litigation as a war game. With San Diego Biz Law APC, it’s all about strategy and a plan – and that is why we prevail, time and time again.

Read a few testimonials from satisfied clients.

Legal Fees & Costs

This is important to everybody, so let’s get it out of the way first. We do not take business cases on contingency, only personal injury and plaintiff Labor & Employment Law. Our hourly rates are fair and reasonable. Unless you want a senior trial lawyer doing all the work on your case (in which case you will pay more per hour), we delegate everything we can to someone at a lower cost but have a senior lawyer review all of the incoming and outgoing pleadings (ie legal documents), and develop a strategy and guide the case. You pay a small percentage of the senior lawyer with all of the benefits of his or her experience. This saves you tens of thousands.

Our lawyers do not handle cases with under $100,000 at risk. It takes us 200-300 resumes to hire one high-level trial lawyer. All of our lawyers are high-level and accustomed to high-level law. For smaller cases, you can find attorneys who specialize in that area.

We do not nickel and dime you. Our minimum billing is .18, not .25 as many others charge.  The savings add up. If you or the opposing counsel sends us an email and it is brief, as is the response, your bill will state ‘BILLED AS ONE’ so you are not paying each way. If we do something very brief, we may even charge below the minimum. We want to earn our money doing the tough stuff for which we are highly trained.

We believe you should not be billed to know how your case is doing. When something of importance takes place, we will call or email you and explain it, FREE OF CHARGE. We will do that until the end of the case.

Our billing is fair. When we work on your case, you are billed right down to the minute. We don’t guess, and we do not generalize, we monitor the time. There are so many items in a case that are often unbilled so it’s not just about the hourly rate; it’s about what all it includes.

Last but not least, our firm is big on education. We are constantly taking courses. to make us better litigators. Many lawyers only take CLE (continuing legal education) courses every 3 years, when they have to, for the State Bar of California. We subscribe to 3 different companies’ courses year-round, ‘every’ year, and are constantly learning. We subscribe to CEBs as well, we use Westlaw, FastCase and various other online databases that provide that strategic edge, in addition to our comprehensive library.

Business Litigation Explained

Before we share our strategies with you, let us outline litigation. Whether you are in a dispute as a shareholder, are filing a lawsuit to address anti-competitive activity, or have partnership issues, we can guide you. There is state and there is federal litigation. Once a lawsuit, also called a Complaint, is filed, you have a certain number of days – 30 – in which to file an answer. Once an answer is filed, there is a long stretch between that period of time and the trial. In that time period, normally two events can take place: discovery and motions.

Discovery is where you obtain information about the case and the other party’s strategy and evidence.  We use a number of what are called ‘discovery tools’, such as interrogatories (another name for questions), requests for admission, requests for production, and depositions. Call one of our business litigation attorneys so we can explain how each of them works, and how they are strategically issued.

Motions are where you ask the court for something that you want to happen. Depending on how aggressive you want to be in discovery, your fees can stay low or get high. Very few cases make it to trial for many good reasons. The key is successful discovery. Discovery is an art; it is not what it looks like.

Call us and speak to one of our San Diego trial lawyers, who can demonstrate how things in commercial law are not always what they seem. The key is knowing what to do and how. We get the job done the first time.

Trial Strategy

Let’s say you want to file a lawsuit against someone or some company that did something wrong. You can prepare a lawsuit, file it with the court and have it served, and away you go. Now you are forced into spending money. There are two alternatives: negotiation and creating a lawsuit without filing it (see below). At the end of the day, litigation is as much a game of strategy as it is a game of law. As they say, he or she who has the best lawyer wins. Another one is: Whoever says you can’t have it all hasn’t met my lawyer yet.

There is an art to law. Our San Diego trial lawyers are strategic, and this is no different than a good chess game. Each move has pros and cons. You have to know what moves to execute as well as how and when to execute them. This is where we shine. This is what we enjoy about our work – checkmate!

Negotiation

One alternative is to have us negotiate the case. Negotiation is very different than arbitration or mediation. It is rapid (usually takes a week), and the goal behind it is to preserve the relationship among the parties (which is why it is so useful in domestic disputes). Our lead attorney, Steven Riznyk,  has undone kidnappings, extortion, blackmail and career destruction over the phone, in a week and with no money changing hands (the hard part). So, if you have something that’s critical and complicated, we can probably negotiate your issues rapidly and to your satisfaction. Just something to think about. Mr Riznyk is writing a book in this field and trains lawyers nationwide on the topic; three experienced (over 30 years) have stated that it was the best CLE (Continuing Legal Education) course they had attended in their careers.

Preparing A Lawsuit Without Filing

Very few San Diego Trail Lawyers will tell you about this method because they cannot make a lot of money using it. However, what you can do is fully prepare a federal or state lawsuit and not file it. Then you would have something to negotiate with, as often, what the other party wants is proof that you have some grounds to stand on and will pursue your claim. If that is the case, you will often find that simply preparing the lawsuit and sending it to them will do the job. However, if they do not comply, keep in mind that there could be consequences, as this sort of maneuver has no value if you don’t go through with it. If you bluff and then the other party later takes action against you, they will no longer believe that you will stand behind your word.

Discovery In Litigation

One of the tools our trial lawyers have found to be very useful is research. In the case of one deposition that our litigation attorneys conducted, they first researched the person being deposed and his lawyer. When the critical time came in the deposition, our litigation attorney presented a lawsuit that his lawyer had prepared against him and had never served, for whatever reason. He fired the lawyer, and the case was settled in five minutes.

The power of discovery is not just in finding out what every trial lawyer can, it’s in finding out what takes work to discover. This is where we excel. We have a number of resources available, including the brilliant people who work for us, who can cut to the chase of a complex issue in minutes to understand what is really at stake and what needs to be done to put the matter to rest. We are not here to churn the case and make money that way. We are here to get you the results you want so that you make San Diego Biz Law APC your first call should you ever need a trial lawyer in the future.

Litigation Defense

If we take on your case, we have to believe in you and your cause. Some companies like doing bad things and hire trial lawyers to run up the opponent’s legal fees. We don’t do that. If, on the other hand, you made a mistake, we can help. Between our business litigation skills and negotiation skills, we can put the problem to rest. One of our favorite clients has a small business and was sued by two of his x employees. One was in San Diego County with one law firm, and one was in Orange County with another. Both sent initial settlement demands for $375,000. With a bit of litigation and some high-level negotiation ‘both’ cases, with both law firms, were settled for $5,000 each, with 6 months to pay. This does not always happen but it did, for San Diego Biz Law and its client.

We are not in the business of charging you as much as we can. We actually want to resolve your case quickly and inexpensively. You may think it is counterintuitive; it’s not. If we do that, you will be our best form of advertising and will send us more clients. This system has worked for us for 34 years and will continue to do so. We are on your side.

‘If You Want Peace, Prepare For War’ – Author Unknown

There are reasons other trial lawyers, doctors, politicians, and CEOs who can afford “anyone” chose our firm: our strategies,  and our San Diego trial lawyers!

Many trial lawyers treat a lawsuit as something they can work through over a long period of time in order to generate a large amount of fees. We are not about that. We would prefer to exceed your expectations as to results and costs so that you feel that you are doing your friends a big service by referring us to them.

We have clients who fly in from San Francisco and drive from Los Angeles; there is no shortage of lawyers in those cities. Don’t get us wrong – in some cases, the trial lawyer on the other side can force you into a costly position. There are, however, a number of strategies you can employ in order to make the case come to a halt more rapidly. Not all trial lawyers are aware of these methods or can execute them with skill. We are business people first and lawyers second.

What We Offer To Clients

• All updates are free of charge and we call and email you regularly – communication is standard operating procedure here.
• Every time you call us, the first 10 minutes are free. It shouldn’t cost you to talk to your attorney about your case.
• At any given time, you have a complete copy of your case, as we constantly update you.
• We are high-level researchers. As a medium-sized firm, we spend approximately $2,400 a month on online legal research databases. Our pleadings win in court because they are well-written, well-researched, succinct, and thorough.
• All clients have the lead attorney as their case lead and can talk to the person with the most experience; your case will not be led by a junior lawyer.
• We only hire trial lawyers who are high-level and bring something to the table; we are constantly complimented on our staff (HR recruiters have been trying to steal our staff for years, and we stopped advertising their names when we discovered this).
• We are updated on the areas of law in which we work; we attend the seminars and read the updates, but, more importantly, we study strategy and really know it.
• Our pricing is fair and reasonable. All our bills are highly documented – no surprises. Clients use them as case histories.
• Oftentimes, a specialized area requires special research or special consultants to guide us; most times we absorb those costs.
• We are not a low-level law firm copying and pasting. We have high-level, dedicated, and intellectually sophisticated people who are devoted to their craft.

San Diego Biz Law Gets The Job Done. Period.

We know you have better things to do and money is always an issue. However, you are in a lawsuit and need to deal with the litigation. Let’s make that as palatable as possible for you. Call us at San Diego Biz Law APC or send an email to understand how our trial lawyers can be very strategic and stretch your dollars.