Imagine that you are working in your office and some unknown person comes in and hands you an envelope and tells you that it is a Summons and Complaint against your company. With your heart pounding, you look at all of the horrible allegations in the lawsuit. The summons says something in legalese about needing to respond in 30 days. What should you do next?
First, write down exactly when and how you were served. There are strict requirements under the court rules about how service must be made. Your attorney will want to know exactly what happened to assess whether your company was properly served.
Second, call your insurance broker immediately. Send them the lawsuit papers. Ask them to tender the lawsuit to your insurance carriers. There is a provision in your policy that requires you to provide your insurer prompt notice of a lawsuit. If the claims are even arguably covered under your policy, your insurance carrier will mostly likely hire an attorney to represent you.
Third, write the deadline to answer the lawsuit on your calendar. If the deadline falls on Saturday or Sunday, back it up to the prior Friday out of an abundance of caution. Do not let this deadline pass without making sure than someone has filed some response to the complaint for you. If your company does not respond, it can be held in default and a judgment entered against it. It is critically important that a response be filed with the Clerk of Court in a timely manner.
Fourth, don’t call the opposing attorney to complain about the allegations. It will not help your case and you may make statements that will be used against you later.
Fifth, get prepared to help your attorney defend you. Gather all of the relevant materials and assure that you put a hold on all company destruction policies that might destroy any of your electronic or paper files that might be relevant and important to the case. If documents or emails are destroyed after a lawsuit is filed, the Court may draw an adverse inference against your company that the materials that are missing were bad for you.
Sixth, relax. Lawsuits involve a slow methodical process and eventually most are settled and resolved.