Getting sued
Served with a business lawsuit? The first weeks, step by step
What the summons means, why the deadline to answer is short, and a worked example: a distributor sued over a packaging contract.
Solveig Tollefsrud8 min read
Business trial lawyer · Minneapolis
Your lawsuit, explained by the lawyer who will try it
I'm Solveig Tollefsrud. I try business cases for owners on either side: suing over a contract someone didn't honor, or defending the one you're accused of breaking.
Most people meet me the week a summons arrives. Before we file a word, we work your case through on paper together: how it will move, what each stage costs, and what disputes like yours have settled for. Then you decide.
Solveig Tollefsrud
Founder and trial lawyer
Why I work this way
The math, shown before the bill
My first years in practice were at a large downtown firm, on cases where clients learned what a lawsuit cost one invoice at a time. The lawyering was careful. The owners still felt ambushed, by the bill and by how long it all took.
I opened this office with two colleagues to do it the other way round. Every matter starts with a written plan: the likely path, a budget for each stage, and the points where settling is worth more than pressing on. We rewrite it whenever the case changes.
Most business lawsuits settle. What matters is whether you settle knowing what your case is worth.
It's also why most of this site is guides. Read one before you call, and our first conversation can be about your facts instead of the basics.
Watch first
How a business lawsuit moves, in twelve minutes
The talk I give at most first meetings: the demand letter, the answer, discovery, mediation and trial, and roughly what each one costs.
How a business lawsuit moves, from demand letter to trial
Guides
Guides with the numbers left in
Each one follows a sample case from the first letter to the last check, so you can see where yours might go. General information, not advice on your facts.
CostsWhat a contract lawsuit costs: one case, stage by stage
A sample fight over an unpaid invoice, with where the money goes at each stage, where it settled and what was recovered.
Rustam Ebrahimi9 min read
Worked examples
Three disputes, worked through
Composite sample cases, written to show how we think, not results to expect. Every dispute turns on its own facts, and past results don't predict yours.
ConstructionThe unpaid subcontractor
A drywall contractor finished a clinic build-out and was still owed $86,000. We recorded a lien before the deadline ran, then sued on the lien and the contract. The general contractor paid $71,000 at mediation four months in.
Construction disputes
PartnershipThe co-owners who stopped talking
Two owners of a ceramics studio split over money and the lease. One wanted out; the other wanted to see the books first. We had the business valued, negotiated a buyout paid over three years, and never filed suit.
Owner and partnership disputes
ContractThe cancelled packaging order
A food distributor was sued for $240,000 after cancelling an order. Its contract allowed cancellation on notice, and the notice had gone out on time. We moved for summary judgment, the claim was dismissed, and the distributor's own claim for its deposit settled for $18,000.
Contract disputes
The firm
Tollefsrud Law at a glance
- Who we represent
- Owners and companies, suing or being suedmost with fewer than two hundred employeesIndividuals in business disputespartners, investors, and buyers and sellers of a company
- Where we appear
- State district courts across Minnesotamost often Hennepin and Ramsey countiesU.S. District Court, District of Minnesota
- Outside court
- Commercial and construction arbitrationand court-ordered mediation
- Fees
- Hourly, with a written budget for each stageflat fees for demand letters and contract reviews
Tell me where the dispute stands
A first call takes thirty minutes. I'll tell you which deadlines matter, whether we're the right firm, and what the next stage would cost.
A first call is free and doesn't make us your lawyers; a signed engagement letter does.