We settled our lawsuit on Monday for $175K. Our fees were around $55-60k. The advice y'all gave in this thread is golden. Everyone should read it. It's so hard to win anything from anyone that makes the expensive, super invasive, super painful process worth it. Lawfare is real y'all.
Here's a synopsis:
1.) We purchased an old farm house on 20 acres that had a shared easement and spent 2 years rehabbing and improving the place.
2.) The neighbor kept an empire of junk and trash along the shared easement. He refused to clean it up even at our expense.
3.) A 2020 forrest fire wipes out our Little House on the Prairie.
4.) We are informed by firemen that the condition of the easement discouraged them from calling for additional resources.
5.) Ass hole neighbor is insured against tort for $500K but our damages are over $1 million. The dude himself had zero assets.
6.) His insurer tried to throw him under the bus and claim it was malice so they're not paying a dime.
7.) 3+ years later and a settlement is reached for $175K. All parties are disappointed. But at least it's over.
Yippie! We can finally get on with our lives..... not so fast my friend. Here comes the twist:
A bully, female pot-grower (we lived in NorCal at the time) who was growing her crop on a far corner of our 20 acres (without our knowledge or consent) begged us to sell her our charred 20 acres. She was another adjacent neighbor and had been growing around 400 pounds of the sticky icky on our property for the past 3 years. If we put our property on the open market she would have to bulldoze her garden. Naturally, we made her pay through the nose, and we packed off to Missouri to help take care of my MIL.
The very season after this unfortunate shrew bought our land, the price of illegal cannabis cratered and she was underwater on the new acquisition. So she decides to sue us for insufficient disclosures about the lawsuit over the easement. She asks for $500K and demands a refund on the land, plus interest and emotional damages because we extorted her into purchasing it. We are now contemplating a countersuit. The details make for a great story but I want to be careful about what I share until we decide what to do about her.
Man, I feel for you lawyers. Complicated, petty, mean business.