Attorney question? Anyone knowleged?

Q: I live in Northeast Missouri. I am looking for the best lawsuit attorney around, I have an extremely legit case, and it could go somewhere, very very far actually. I was wondering how to go about finding the best one, does anyone know the best way to approach this? Specifically, it deals with a certain store chain with stores across the US (maybe the world, I'm not sure). I bought a certain product for my child that should not have been sold in the store for many, many, reasons, and could result in a lifetime of bad bad news for my child and every child across the US who has one of these things. I don't just want to call around my town or the surrounding ones, I want to know how to find an attorney who has a good past of winning lawsuits and just a good past of cases in general. Any suggestions? (Note: please do not try to sell me pre-paid legal, I am a rep for the company myself already!!!!)

A: You are not being very specific about why the product should not have been sold in the store. ("Many, many, reasons" really doesn't help.) You need to sort out what exactly is the "cause of action" as it is called. Is the problem one of patent infringement? In other words, should the product not have been sold because you (or someone you know) has a patent on the product? If so, you obviously need a patent litigation firm. There might be a patent firm in Kansas City or St. Louis, but most are in the Washington, DC/Northern Virginia area, or in the largest cities. Or, is the problem one of a violation of import laws? There have been lawsuits based on the use of child labor in other countries, for example. That's a different kind of case altogether, and you would need an expert in international trade. Or--and this might be the most likely--perhaps the case is based on the product being defective. "Product liability" lawsuits are very common. It is one of the most common areas of commercial litigation, and an good commercial litigation attorney could probably handle it . . . "unless." The "unless" part comes from whether this might be a class action lawsuit. Class actions are usually based when the harm to any one person may be too small to justifiy the suit, but when put together, thousands of small claims make one very big one. But class action litigation is very, very difficult, and only an expert should take one on. They are also very expensive to conduct. If the company wins instead of you, the entire class is bound by the outcome (everyone in the same situation, such as everyone who bought the same product). So courts are very reluctant to allow a class to be formed, unless there is a lot of effort into notifying people that the suit is being filed. That means letters to thousands of people, ads in newspapers all over the country, that sort of thing. That costs big bucks. And it is not for the faint of heart. If I were you, I would pick out a good local lawyer--not an expert, not anyone you would necessarily hire for the whole case--and pay him or her to talk to you for a couple of hours about what your case is about. One of the biggest issues is damages. If you buy a bad toaster, your damages are (usually) just the price of the toaster. So, the most you can usually win in a case is maybe $50. If the store gave you your money back when you complained to them, then you have no damages. Of course, if there were a million bad toasters and the company knew about it, then you might have a class action. And if the toasters caused the wiring in your house to overheat, which led to a fire, your damages are much more than the cost of the toaster. After you decide whether there is a real case here, start doing some research on the Internet. Look for lawsuits like yours (patent, product liability, whatever). Read the news stories. And find out what the names were of the plaintiff's lawyers. At that point, you will understand your case well, and you will probably have two or three lawyers' names to contact. Then it is just a matter of deciding who you are most comfortable working with. I wish you well. Complex litigation is never an easy road, but justice often depends on it. Good luck!!

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