See how our experience can help you:
- Success Story: Class Action
Suit to Slay a Dragon
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Success Story: Our Research Facilitates Out-of-Court Settlement
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Success Story: Busy Lawyers Love Us
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Success Story: We Stick to What We Agree Upon
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Success Story: We Can Ball-Park Pain & Suffering Damages
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Success Story: Need a Ghostwriter?
We Can Do That, too!
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Success Story: We Can Assist
Your Tribunal
Class Action Suit to Slay a
Dragon
One of my long-term clients decided to slay a
dragon and took on the insurance industry in a
class action law suit. I was involved from the
beginning in preparing research memoranda to
help him frame his action and to deal with
interlocutory proceedings. This resulted in
research of such quality that we
co-authored four articles on the law relating to class actions that were published in a national
legal journal. On appeal, I researched
additional issues, helped write the factum and
took care of the details to bring the final
draft to a “filing ready” form. I then worked
closely with my client and prominent outside
counsel to prepare the Application for Leave to
Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada and again
took carriage of the detail work to ensure a
product that was ready to be filed.
Our Research Facilitates Out-of-Court Settlement
A new client was due in court on a matter three days after he called me. He
told me that he just wanted cases, noted-up, within a
fixed budget of $1,500 plus GST. A Bottom Line Research
associate gathered the relevant case law for him
and prepared a three-page reporting letter
summarizing her results. I reviewed her work to
ensure that it met our standards, made minor
revisions, and emailed the reporting letter to
the client with attached cases. Our fees and
disbursements actually exceeded $1,500 but the
invoice to the client was discounted to the
agreed-upon amount.
When I made my follow-up call to ensure that he
had been happy with our services, he said that
with the case law in hand he had been able to
negotiate an excellent settlement on the eve of
the court appearance.
Busy Lawyers Love Us
One of my long-term clients is an established
lawyer with a very busy practice and little
discretionary time. He had an important appeal
to handle, however, and asked me to write the
factum for him. He sent me a letter
outlining what he thought were the grounds of
appeal and how he wanted to approach the
argument. I reviewed the appeal books in detail
and we had a 20-minute discussion about how he
wished his argument to be developed. After he
had reviewed the draft I had prepared for him,
we spoke for another 20 minutes to discuss his
revisions. I took care of the remaining details
and prepared the final draft of the factum
and the Book of Authorities, in a form ready to
be filed.
He comfortably met his filing deadline and felt
that his arguments had been articulated as he
would have done himself, had he had the time.
We Stick to What We Agree Upon
A typical scenario is the instance of a client
who called and gave me instructions on the phone
regarding research on a substantive matter of
commercial litigation. He was being asked
by his client to prepare an opinion letter and
wanted a research memorandum to provide the
analytical framework. As there was no pressing
deadline, we agreed that I would have a research
memorandum with background cases & materials
ready for him in three weeks time. We also
agreed on a maximum fee. He confirmed the
details of our discussion in a brief letter of
instructions. The work was delegated to a Bottom
Line Research associate who had expertise in
matters of commercial litigation. Upon timely
delivery by the associate, I reviewed her work
to ensure that it met Bottom Line standards. The project was
then e-mailed
to the client, on schedule. Even though
I had a small cost overrun, I billed him
the amount agreed upon.
In the follow-up phone call the client confirmed
that the research was exactly what he was
looking for and his opinion letter was near
completion, based largely on our research
memorandum.
We Can Ball-Park
Pain & Suffering Damages
A long-term client with a thriving plaintiff’s
personal injury practice was off to mediation on
the issue of the amount of damages justly due
her client as a result of his injuries suffered
in a motor vehicle accident. She wanted a
quantum assessment summarizing the injuries
suffered, reviewing analogous cases and
suggesting a likely range of damages for pain
and suffering. The client sent over a brief
letter of instructions and copies of two recent
medical reports regarding the injuries. In two
weeks time a quantum assessment reviewing the
analogous cases, adjusting the awards to
inflation and concluding a likely range of
awards for general damages was emailed to the
client.
The client then used the quantum assessment
as the basis of her mediation brief and had a
successful result.
Need a Ghostwriter? We Can Do That, too!
Discretion prevents us from providing too many
facts in this success story. Suffice to say that
a prominent member of the bar was invited to
give a presentation to an educational conference
on a breaking issue. This lawyer was far too
busy to research and write the paper required to
go with the presentation. Unwilling, however, to
decline the prestigious invitation, and because
of the great potential for marketing
opportunities arising from it, the lawyer came
to us. We were asked to ghostwrite the paper.
The lawyer and I met for about an hour to
canvass what should be in the paper. I then
researched and wrote a 30-page paper which was
eventually submitted to the conference
organizers.
The lawyer received many compliments from
attendees and no-one was aware that the paper
was not the lawyer's own scholarship.
We can also assist Tribunals
Bottom Line
Research also takes a support role to various
tribunals from time to time. We prepare research
memoranda on legal issues arising, prepare
policy papers on more strategic issues, and
provide further support as needed.
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