{"id":2694,"date":"2011-05-18T13:05:03","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T17:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=2694"},"modified":"2011-06-09T16:36:12","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T20:36:12","slug":"suing-are-you-nuts-or-are-you-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=2694","title":{"rendered":"Worried about suing? Are you nuts or are you not"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seriously though, when our arm is raised to strike it pains us if the blow lands nowhere and merely beats the air; similarly, if a prospect is to be made pleasing it must not be dissipated and scattered over an airy void but have some object at a reasonable distance to sustain it… \u2013 Michel de Montaigne, How the soul discharges its emotions against false objects when lacking real ones.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A while ago I told you about Staff Man, a clinically psychotic guy who was a civil rights client of the law firm for which I worked.<\/p>\n

Maybe I shouldn\u2019t have mentioned him. Maybe I encouraged you to believe that anyone has a case no matter how nuts he is. Or, alternatively, that because you think you\u2019re nuts, you shouldn\u2019t pursue a lawsuit.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s move out of the stages of Who Sues<\/strong>,\u00a0Who Shouldn\u2019t Sue?<\/strong> and Uh-Oh<\/strong> and head to the Oh No!<\/strong> stage of a lawsuit. This is the stage in which your uneasy suspicions that you might have to sue turn into certainty.<\/p>\n

But before I do, let me offer some reassurance: if you\u2019re facing into a possible lawsuit, you are ipso facto<\/em> in a state of crisis. Crisis is not a state that is conducive to rational behavior. So don\u2019t feel bad if you think you\u2019re not being entirely rational.<\/p>\n

The worst aspect of emotional crisis is a sense of helplessness, being out of control. Action is the antidote to helplessness. When you begin acting on your own behalf, you will feel better.<\/p>\n

Knowing what’s likely to happen and how to act upon what you know\u2014the purpose of Sidebar<\/strong>\u2014will help you feel empowered.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already given you some tips about how to behave rationally (writing out your story and keeping files) and I\u2019ll expand further upon that theme, offered to me long ago by an innovative psychiatrist, who advised me to \u201cact as if\u201d I were OK because often \u201cacting as if\u201d leads to feeling OK.<\/p>\n

Considering a lawsuit is evidence that you\u2019ve begun to cope with this emotional turmoil, this assault upon your essence, in a relatively sane, productive manner.<\/p>\n

But I’m not giving you permission to act like a nut. There are some things you shouldn\u2019t be doing (aside from dropping spangles onto your lawyer\u2019s carpet\u2013you remember that woman, right?).<\/p>\n

The Don\u2019ts<\/strong><\/p>\n