If your business is already in a lawsuit, you’ve likely moved past the initial shock and landed on a more practical question: what actually happens next? The business litigation process in Michigan follows a predictable sequence, even when the dispute itself is complicated, and each stage asks something different of you.
If you were just served, our guide on what to do if your Michigan business gets sued covers the first steps.
Key Takeaways: What Happens During a Business Litigation Case?
- Your business generally has 21 days to respond after being served in Michigan, or 28 days if served outside the state or by registered mail. Missing that deadline can lead to a default judgment.
- Plan to spend time on the case yourself, especially during discovery, when you’ll gather records and you or your employees may be asked to testify.
- Most business cases end before trial, through an early motion, a settlement process like mediation, or a negotiated agreement.
- Since 2022, rejecting a case evaluation award no longer carries the cost penalties it once did.
- If you want a jury to decide your case, your attorney has to request one within 28 days after the answer is filed.
What Are the Stages of Litigation in a Michigan Business Case?
Every business lawsuit is different, but most follow the same path:
- Pleadings: Each side puts its claims and defenses in writing.
- Early Motions: Either side can ask the judge to throw out or narrow the case.
- Discovery: Both sides exchange documents and take sworn testimony.
- Mediation or case evaluation: Structured attempts to settle, usually once much of the evidence is in.
- Pretrial: The court finalizes what will be argued at trial and gives settlement another try.
- Trial: A judge or jury decides the cases that don’t resolve earlier.
These stages often overlap, and settlement talks can happen at any point. Your role is heaviest during discovery, but decisions made in the first few weeks affect everything that follows.
Which Michigan Court Hears a Business Lawsuit?
Where your case is heard depends mostly on how much money is at stake. Under Michigan law, claims of $25,000 or less go to district court, and larger claims go to circuit court.
Circuit courts with at least three judges also run a dedicated business court; Oakland County Circuit Court is one of them. If your case involves a business or commercial dispute as Michigan’s business court statute defines it, the case must be assigned there.
For you, that means your case will likely go before a judge who hears business disputes regularly. The statute’s stated goal is to make decisions in these cases more consistent and predictable.
What Are Pleadings in a Michigan Business Lawsuit?
Pleadings are formal documents where each side states its position in writing. The person or company suing you files a complaint, and your business responds with an answer. Your answer can also include claims of your own against them, called counterclaims, or bring in another party who shares responsibility.
Your business generally has 21 days to respond after being served in Michigan, or 28 days if you were served outside the state or by registered mail. The answer should go through each numbered paragraph of the complaint and admit it, deny it, or state that your business doesn’t know.
The answer is also where your business raises its defenses. Some defenses, such as an argument that the claim was filed too late, can be lost if they aren’t raised at the start.
Missing this deadline is one of the costliest mistakes a business can make. Michigan courts can enter a default judgment against a business that doesn’t respond in time, even when the underlying claims are weak or exaggerated. That risk is why the first few weeks after service are so critical.
Can a Business Lawsuit Be Dismissed Before Trial?
Yes. Either side can ask the judge to decide all or part of a case without a trial through what Michigan calls a motion for summary disposition. Federal courts and many other states call this summary judgment.
Some of these motions argue that even if everything in the complaint is true, it still doesn’t add up to a valid legal claim. Those can be filed early in the case. Others argue that the evidence leaves nothing real to dispute, so they usually come after the discovery, once the evidence is on the record.
For a business owner, an early motion can end a weak lawsuit before discovery costs build up. Even when a motion doesn’t end the case, it can narrow the claims, which affects how much the rest of the case will cost.
What Happens During the Discovery Phase?
Discovery is when both sides gather and exchange evidence. It’s usually the longest stage of a business lawsuit and the one that asks the most of you and your team.
What Your Business Will Need to Provide
Early in discovery, each side has to share basic information without being asked, including the people likely to know about the dispute and the key documents it may rely on. Michigan added this step, called initial disclosures, in its 2020 discovery rule changes.
After that, the other side can send formal requests. You’ll typically see three kinds:
- Written questions (interrogatories): Your business answers them in writing and under oath. Michigan generally limits each side to 20 questions.
- Document requests: Demands for contracts, invoices, emails, financial records, and similar files.
- Requests for admission: Statements your business must admit or deny. If you don’t respond within 28 days, they’re treated as admitted, which can be hard to undo.
Responses are generally due within 28 days, so your business litigation attorney will need your help quickly. Expect to search email accounts, pull financial records, and identify which employees were involved in the dispute.
Protecting Your Records and Sensitive Information
Michigan’s rules require parties to preserve electronically stored information, so nothing connected to the dispute should be deleted or overwritten. That includes emails, texts, and accounting files.
If the other side asks for sensitive financial or customer information, your attorney can ask the court for an order limiting how that information is used and who can see it.
What Happens During the Deposition Process?
A deposition is an interview under oath, usually held in a lawyer’s office, with a court reporter recording every word. The other side’s attorney asks the questions, and your attorney is there to protect you.
Michigan limits each deposition to one day of seven hours. Your attorney can object to improper questions, and while a question is waiting for an answer, a witness generally can’t stop to talk with anyone else, including by text or email.
The transcript can be used later in the case, including at trial. How a witness comes across also affects how both sides value the case for settlement.
When Your Business Is the Witness
The other side can name your company itself as a witness and list the topics it wants to ask about, if they give at least 14 days’ notice. You decide who testifies on behalf of the business. It can be you, a manager, or another employee.
Whoever you choose, they need to be ready to speak for everything the company reasonably knows about those topics, which may include information they’ll need to gather from coworkers. Choosing and preparing that person is one of the more important decisions you’ll make in discovery.
How to Prepare for a Deposition
Preparation usually starts with reviewing the documents and the timeline your testimony will cover. Your attorney will walk you through the topics likely to come up, how objections work, and how to give answers that are accurate and complete without volunteering more than the question asks.
Most witnesses do best with short, accurate answers to the question actually asked. Guessing or volunteering extra details can create problems that follow the case to trial.
Where Do Mediation and Case Evaluation Fit In?
Many business disputes are settled before a judge or jury ever hears them, through a structured settlement process. Michigan courts rely on two main options for this: case evaluation and mediation.
Case Evaluation in Michigan
In case evaluation, a panel of experienced attorneys reviews both sides’ positions and recommends a dollar amount to settle the case, called an award. Your business can accept or reject the award. If everyone accepts, the case is resolved for that amount; if anyone rejects, it moves toward trial.
Rejecting the award carries less risk than it used to. Before 2022, a party that rejected an award and then did worse at trial could be ordered to pay the other side’s costs. The Michigan Supreme Court’s 2022 changes eliminated those penalties and let parties agree to mediation or another court-approved process instead.
Attorney Jan Jeffrey Rubinstein serves as a case evaluator in Oakland County Circuit Court and District Court, so he knows through deep experience how panels approach this stage.
Mediation
In mediation, a neutral mediator helps both sides negotiate. The mediator doesn’t decide anything, and nothing is final unless both sides agree. Courts can order mediation, and parties can also choose it on their own.
For business owners, settlement is ultimately a business decision. You’re weighing the cost of resolving the case now against the time, legal fees, and disruption of continuing to litigate.
What Happens at a Pretrial Conference?
The court manages your case through a scheduling order that sets the key deadlines, including when discovery ends and when motions must be filed.
As the trial approaches, courts often hold a final pretrial conference to narrow the disputed issues, confirm witness and exhibit lists, and give both sides one more chance to settle. You may be asked to attend or be available, especially if a settlement is on the table.
What Happens if the Case Goes to Trial?
Trial is the stage most people picture when they hear “lawsuit,” but most business cases end before reaching it. When a case does go to trial, a judge or jury hears the evidence and decides the outcome.
In Michigan, a jury decides the case only if someone asks for one. Your attorney has to file a written jury demand and pay the jury fee within 28 days after the answer is filed, or the right to a jury is waived.
Claims for money, such as most breach of contract claims, can generally go to a jury. Requests for a court order, such as an order stopping a former partner from using your customer list, are generally decided by a judge.
What Litigation Asks of Your Business
Beyond legal fees, a lawsuit draws on your time and your team’s. Planning for that early makes the case easier to manage.
- Your time: Expect to meet with your attorney, review filings, help answer written questions, and make settlement decisions at several points.
- Your records: Discovery can reach email accounts, accounting files, contracts, and text messages. Keeping them organized and preserved makes responses faster.
- Your employees: People involved in the dispute may need to help find documents or sit for depositions, which takes them away from their regular work.
- Your decisions: Settlement offers, case evaluation awards, and mediation proposals all call for a judgment about cost, risk, and timing.
Knowing what each stage will need from you makes it easier to plan around the case and keep your business running.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Business Litigation Process
Do I have to go to trial if my business is sued?
No. Most business lawsuits end before trial, through an early motion, case evaluation, mediation, or a negotiated settlement. A case goes to trial only when none of those options resolves it.
How long does a lawsuit take in Michigan?
There’s no set timeline. The court’s scheduling order sets the major deadlines, and the overall length depends on how complex the dispute is, how much evidence has to be exchanged, and whether an early motion or settlement ends the case sooner.
Can a business settle at any point during litigation?
Yes. Settlement isn’t limited to mediation or case evaluation. Parties can negotiate and resolve a case at any point, including before a complaint is filed, during discovery, or on the eve of trial.
What’s the difference between business litigation and commercial litigation?
The terms are largely interchangeable. Both refer to lawsuits involving businesses, such as contract disputes, partnership and shareholder conflicts, and disputes with vendors or customers. In Michigan, cases that meet the legal definition of a business or commercial dispute go to the business court in circuits that have one.
What Michigan Business Owners Should Keep in Mind
Early decisions in a business lawsuit shape what’s possible later. The defenses raised in your answer, the records you preserve, and whether a jury is requested are all settled in the first weeks and months.
If your business has just been served, the 21-day response deadline comes first, and getting legal help before it passes keeps your defenses available.
Talk Through Your Case With a Farmington Hills Business Litigation Attorney
When you call The Rubinstein Law Firm, you’ll speak with an attorney who will listen to where your case stands, explain what the next stage will require, and tell you how we can help. If we’re not the best team for the job, we’ll point you in the right direction. The first call is free. Call (248) 220-1415 or contact us online to speak with a business litigation attorney serving Farmington Hills and Metro Detroit.
