As a franchisee, your hope may be that your business operations run as smoothly as possible. But unfortunately, you may encounter a hiccup along the way, such as a breach of contract, fraud, encroachment, and franchise disclosure document violations, among many other things. This is when you may need to hold a negligent franchisor liable in a civil lawsuit. Follow along to find out how long your franchise litigation may take and how one of the proficient franchisee litigation attorneys at FortmanSpann, LLC can guide you through this timeline.
Approximately how long will my franchise litigation take?
Generally speaking, franchise litigation may take approximately two to three years to complete. This is because there are many steps that must be taken in such a legal proceeding. Firstly, you and your attorney will sit down at your initial consultation to build out a comprehensive legal strategy. Soon after, you may begin the initial paperwork for your claim, along with notifying the franchisor that you intend to take legal action against them.
But likely the step that requires the largest time commitment is the discovery process. This is when you and your attorney will dig up any and all evidence that is relevant to your argument and that is admissible at your trial. The sequence of events involved in the discovery process is as follows:
- Attendance at the required discovery conference.
- The submission of the discovery plan, which was developed at the discovery conference.
- The submission of initial disclosures.
- The submission of expert testimony.
In the end, you must understand that most franchise cases do not make it as far as the discovery process. Rather, a franchisee and franchisor may attempt to negotiate a settlement agreement. This is likely only doable if you are willing to receive a lesser amount of financial compensation than you initially anticipated. At the same time, it helps if a franchisor wants to make this issue go away as quickly and discreetly as possible.
How long will I have to bring my claim forward?
Importantly, you must understand that there is a statute of limitations when it comes to filing a claim against a franchisor. This limitation period varies from state to state. It may also be contingent on what the issue at hand is. But in general, you may have anywhere between one year to six years to bring your franchise case forward. Otherwise, you may be permanently barred from suing your franchisor. This translates into being permanently barred from an opportunity for financial compensation and overall justice.
If franchise litigation is something that you wish to kickstart today, then you must retain the services of one of the talented franchise law attorneys from FortmanSpann, LLC. We await sitting down with you at your free initial consultation.