Module 7

Choosing and enforcing remedies: election, double recovery, collecting a judgment and settling

A remedy is only as good as the claimant’s ability to obtain it, combine it with others and, above all, collect it. A lawyer who wins a large judgment against a company that has no assets has won nothing. A lawyer who sues for the wrong remedy, or for two inconsistent remedies, may find that the claim is struck out or that the court makes the claimant choose. A lawyer who ignores the limitation period loses everything. This final module before the capstone draws the earlier material together. It deals with how remedies fit together, including the rules against double recovery and the need to elect between inconsistent remedies; how a money judgment is collected and what can be done about a defendant who will not or cannot pay; how coercive orders are enforced; the time limits that apply; and how to turn the remedies you could win into a settlement that gives the client what it needs. It ends with the Remedy Selector, a tool that takes the facts of a wrong and lists the remedies worth asking for, with reasons. The people and businesses are invented.

General education on civil remedies, using invented cases, businesses and people. It states common principles in simplified form and does not describe any one country's law, which differs and changes; rules on damages, punitive damages, costs, limitation periods and enforcement in particular vary. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace the instruction of a law school or advice from a qualified lawyer.