Civil Litigation Attorney

While many people believe attorneys to be intelligent people who argue it out in a courtroom to find if a man is guilty of a crime or not in a battle of justice, the reality is quite the contrary. A civil litigation attorney, a type of attorney that specializes in civil law, often spends most of his time in a law office working on their cases given to them by a client. A civil attorney’s day often revolves around gathering and writing of a case and settling it in or out of court.

A civil attorney’s day often revolves around gathering and writing a case for their client. Brittany Vacek Ruyak, a civil litigation attorney, has experience on how to handle cases given to them by a client every so often. “You have to do legal research, find the

facts, then you have to write legal motions [documents],” Brittany describes. “You have to know what the law is, and how it applies to the case” (Vacek Ruyak).

A civil litigation attorney has to spend the majority of their time at work researching the facts of a case, all while knowing the law and what role it takes in the case. Once the facts have been determined, an attorney next has to write legal documents to use to help prove their view of the case, all requiring the majority of an attorney’s day to revolve around gathering and writing a case for their client. Civil law career-researcher Susan Echaore-McDavid also elaborates on what a litigation attorney often does each day. “Litigation Attorneys perform various legal tasks each day. They conduct legal research, review and analyze legal documents, write legal correspondence, and prepare legal documents such as motions, briefs, and contracts. They keep clients up-to-date with their cases, whether in person, by phone, or through e-mails or correspondence. These lawyers also direct and guide paralegals, legal secretaries, and other staff members, who provide them with essential legal, administrative, or clerical

support,” Echaore-McDavid reports in an article about the job itself (Echaore-McDavid). While attorneys may do various other tasks every day, an attorney’s main responsibilities on a day-to-day basis revolve around the processes of writing and researching legal papers for their cases. They also receive assistance with these cases from other workers at the firm, and can even contact the client themselves, making their day revolve around writing a researching a case for their client.
Settling a case in or out of court is another process that a civil attorney’s day often revolves around.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has released information to the public on what happens in civil cases, which also includes the settling of a case outside of a trial. The office details in its reports, “To avoid the expense and delay of having a trial, judges encourage the litigants to try to reach an agreement resolving their dispute. The courts encourage the use of mediation, arbitration, and other forms of alternative dispute resolution, designed to produce a resolution of a dispute without the need for trial or other court proceedings. As a result, litigants often agree to a ‘settlement’” (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts). While the general public often believes most, if not all cases are settled in an intense trial, that is often not the case for civil litigation attorneys. When all of the facts of the case have been found, an attorney must spend their time at work getting in contact with the other party to negotiate a settlement to avoid the lengthy and expensive process of a trial. These negotiations often take a while to complete, often needing many days to be spent settling a case. However, Susan Echaore-McDavid also further explains in her article about what happens if a case cannot be settled outside of court: a trial. “The attorneys take turns presenting evidence before the court through witness testimony. Each side may cross-examine the

other party's witnesses, as well as make appropriate objections to testimony, evidence, and other matters. Then the judge or jury deliberates on the evidence and makes a verdict,” Susan writes on the topic of trials and settlement (Echaore-McDavid). Although trials are rare compared to settlement outside of court, they still occur, and civil litigation attorneys must be prepared to deal with them. All of the research and writing that an attorney does during the discovery phase of a case eventually cumulate to form the arguments for what a civil attorney wants to prove to a judge and occasionally a jury, leading to their days often revolving around settling a case.
The majority of a civil attorney’s time is spent creating a case for a client and settling it. While the media may portray an attorney as a courtroom hero who argues in an intense trial, very few show the daily hard work and determination that lead up to it. An attorney doesn’t always battle in court, but they do always work exceedingly hard through research, writing, and persuasion to help their clients in the name of justice.