Litigation PR or litigation Public Relation has often been misjudged as a simple written statement or as a response to a legal suit in the form of fresh release then organization or an individual is involved in. Litigation PR has also been thought of as a sample press conference where a person announces outside a courthouse that is legal so it would be filed.
While a legal dispute involves a lot of other legal processes, litigation PR stands bigger than those processes put together. Litigation PR is an important strategic principle that lawyers have to be involved with during a lawsuit.
Understanding litigation PR
The process of managing communications during a legal proceeding or any other form of litigation is referred to as litigation PR. Litigation PR works in a way where it either impacts the legal suit itself or affects the client’s public recognition.
During a lawsuit, communication between the parties involved in the suit or between an organization is crucial. This is primarily because legal proceedings or actions for few cases are settled before being taken into a courtroom or before it can encounter a formal judgment through a trial.
The importance of litigation PR
To begin with, it is important to remember that dealing with particular litigation means that reporting it has to be given considerable attention. Without thinking much about how the lawsuit would be reported can make or break the case since the case report is a form of record that stays for a long time.
Public Relations or PR communication is a vital tool in litigation and it has a dramatic impact on the aftermaths of a lawsuit. A legal PR agency would highlight its importance based on the fact that whenever a case is supposed to be recorded in the public domain, the first-hand narrative has a huge impact on how the case is looked upon by the public.
In terms of an individual’s or an organization’s reputation in the near future, in regards to a lawsuit, the Court of public opinion is where the eventual verdict lies. Thus, the public’s perspective towards a lawsuit not only tends to impact the overall perspective of the case but also the negotiable positions and settlement cards of the parties involved.
For instance, when one of the parties involved in a lawsuit receives negative consideration in the news coverage or terms of public opinion, that party’s negotiable position will have a different impact than the one where any public denunciation was absent.
An effective litigation PR would allow a lawsuit to be mitigated against any reputational damage. The key to a successful litigation PR would be to communicate effectively with the appropriate audiences, for which a legal PR agency could be hired, along with having a litigation plan which works as a valuable mechanism against reputational damage.
Thus, the foremost step will be to analyze the risks of the lawsuit and to determine with whom the communication has to be initiated.