Category: Other Posted on Feb 22, 2016

How a Kid’s First Birthday Party is Like a Lawsuit

baby-birthday-1Throwing a party for your child’s first birthday is incredibly exciting. You think to yourself, “Wow, I can’t believe my new son/daughter is already a year old!” It is assumed that most parents approach the situation in the same way. We predict and plan for a joyful experience: our baby’s first cake, fun indoor and outdoor activities, friends, grandparents, aunts and uncles, the list goes on and on. It is supposed to be a wonderful experience in which all parties involved get together to show their love for our minted one-year old.

However, there is usually some “rain” that falls on the party, some adversity. Perhaps the birthday girl or boy becomes sick from eating too much and won’t stop crying. Or grandma has a doctor’s appointment and can’t make it, leaving the parents disheartened. Maybe even the ice cream cake didn’t get stored properly and ended up in a puddle.

It’s important to know that in each person’s life a little rain will fall. Either literally in the backyard at the kid’s birthday party, or metaphorically speaking. The important part is how we deal with that adversity. We must do our best Taylor Swift and shake it off (sorry for the cheesy reference), move on to the next moment, and experience the joys and the challenges; hopefully with people who you care about and who care about you. Always be thankful for the opportunity to enjoy these ups and downs of life.

So How Does This Relate to a Lawsuit?

When a client comes to us, 99% of the time it is because they are experiencing some sort of distress. Not many people get involved in lawsuits (both plaintiffs and defendants) just for the fun of it. We often find ourselves not only solving a lawsuit, but helping people accept a reality. That reality is normally not positive. Even if the lawsuit is favorable for a client in the end, it is still signifying an important part of something: the end. This can be the end of a failed relationship, a failed business, a failed love, etc. Regardless of the situation, the fight was time consuming, and required a dollar value to be assigned to a terrible event.

So while it is sometimes a wonderful and positive experience to move on, especially after the fun of winning a case, it is often not extremely satisfying. The winning of the case and the child’s first birthday party can be positive, but there will always be those negatives (the reason for the lawsuit and the rain on the party). It’s important to recognize and learn from both of them.

Bruce Stanger

My litigation experience includes family law, divorce, product liability, construction law, professional negligence, shareholder disputes, legal malpractice, and general commercial litigation.