Litigations is very expensive and usually counter-productive.
At the initial consultation, the prospective client always says it's not about the money, it's about the principle.
Couple months of $20K/mo. legal bills and guess what...it's about the money.
So here's the problems...
1. Even if you're right and the other guy is wrong, if the other guy has deeper pockets, he can still beat you (unless it is a contingency fee case which generally only happens in personal injury). This is a dirty little secret of litigation and the wealthy can win even if the poor has a rock-solid case. As long as the wealthy can survive past an early motion to dismiss or summary judgement, he can run up legal fees during discovery until he's bled you white and you have no more money to continue the fight. This is particularly heartbreaking.
2. If there's no prevailing party fees provision, even if you win, your litigation costs shrink your recovery. Say you have a slam dunk of a $200K case. If you spend $100K on your attorney, you really only recover $100K so overall you're in the hole $100K. Of course, you could lose the case too.
3. If there is a prevailing party fees provision, you rapidly reach the point where the combined fees exceed the damages. When that happens...you can't settle without both sides losing which means you can't settle. Then it becomes a death march to the end, fees keep rising, winner take all, but that leads to...
4. A judgement in your favor is nothing more than a piece of paper. You can get $1M judgement against me, and it's not worth much of anything. My homestead is protected, my retirement is protected, my car is protected, my salary is mostly protected (got dependents), etc. What's worse, I can file for bankruptcy and you'll get even less. All that fighting, all that litigation, all those legal fees, and in the end you win big, you get all your damages and all your attorney's fees and the other guy turns around the next day and files for bankruptcy. Whomp-Whomp.
Sometimes, the best advice is to settle early before the fees make settlement impossible. You have to do enough litigation so both sides know what the case is really worth (otherwise settlement negotiations will be a waste of time).
A young attorney advising a client focuses on the facts of the case, and whether the facts and the law are on the client's side. A seasoned attorney also takes into account things like deep pockets, likelihood of recovery (or bankruptcy), etc.
Alex.