BE YOUR OWN LAWYER

Empowering You to Represent Yourself

Now comes the fun part.

You’re laying out your facts in chronological order.

We’ve talked about causes of action before, but now it’s time to match facts with causes of action.

To put it differently, it’s time to decide what you’re going to be suing for.

And this can get tricky because you may not even be aware of potential causes of action.

To see how this might all come together, let’s put it in the context of an example. Things that actually or at least could happen in the real world are often easier to understand.

So let’s set up a scenario.

You realize one day that your roof isn’t looking so good, so after doing your research, you pick a roofing contractor. He comes out, looks at your roof and quotes you some prices to replace the roof. The price differences have to do with the materials and quality of shingles that will be used.

You agree on a mid-price shingle, he presents you with a simple one page quotation that each of you sign, and you pay him some upfront $$.

Eventually, after some delays, the roof is installed.

Your exuberance at having a new roof quickly fades the first time it rains…. The new roof leaves a lot to be desired.

With the roof leaking like a sieve, you call the roofer. He assures you that he will remedy the problem, but days turn into weeks and it becomes clear that you’ve been had.

So you decide to take the roofer to court…. And it’s time to draft your complaint.

You lay out your facts and now you need to decide on your causes of action.

Well, the first one is easy…. You had a contract. But wait a minute…. The “contract” just says that a roof will be installed, using a specific kind of shingle. It doesn’t say anything about leaking, or not leaking.

You decide (better late than never right?_ to get a second opinion. Another roofer looks at things and informs you that”

A. You didn’t get the shingles you picked – the roofer decided to save money and use cheaper shingles.
B. A base layer should have been put down before the shingles – there is no such base layer
C. The shingles were not properly installed.

Here’s where you have to research. AI believe it or not can help. Legal research into cases can help. Reading articles about sales and warranties, and contractors can help.

And if you put it all together – that is absorb as much as you can find online, you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise.

If you search on contracts, missing terms (remember it said nothing about leaks right?) and implied terms you will learn that all contracts have an implied condition of good faith and fair dealing. You will find that unless disclaimed, every deal like yours includes implied warranties. That is there is an assumption that if you contract for a new roof it will be a roof that does not leak.

So your first cause of action is a breach of the contract. But you keep digging.

You find that your state has a unfair trade practice law. Different states call these statutes by different names, but the gist is there is a cause of action against businesses that use unfair or deceptive tactics…. Like substituting cheap shingles for what was agreed to and paid for…

Then more research.

The roofer took your money and instead of using it (or at least the right part of it) to buy quality shingles, he kept it. That is unjust enrichment.

Of course you can add fraud to the list…substituting inferior product is classic fraud.

Are you beginning to see the pattern here? You don’t just stop with the most obvious cause of action…you use your imagination and research and come up with a whole slate of claims.