Civil Litigation Attorney
in Metro Detroit
I handle contract disputes, business disputes, and real estate litigation in the Metro Detroit courts I have practiced in since 1990, and the first thing I will tell you is whether the case is worth bringing.
Admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in 1990.
Livonia office at 18306 Middlebelt Rd.
What Civil Litigation Covers
at Akouri Law
Civil litigation is the part of the law that handles disputes between people and businesses when money, property, or an agreement is at the center of it. It is what you are in when talking has stopped working and someone has to decide.
Three kinds of cases make up most of this work in my practice.
Contract Disputes
An agreement was made and one side did not hold up their end. Sometimes the contract is a signed document, sometimes it is an invoice, an email chain, and a handshake. Either way the questions are the same: what was actually agreed, what was actually done, and what the difference is worth. I will tell you which of those three you are strongest on before anything gets filed.
Business Disputes
Partners who cannot agree, an owner who took something that was not theirs, a vendor relationship that ended badly. These cases are rarely only about the money, and the practical question is usually whether you are trying to be paid, to be separated, or to be made whole, because those three goals lead to very different cases.
Real Estate Litigation
Disputes over property, purchase agreements, boundaries, conditions that were not disclosed, and transactions that did not close the way they were supposed to. If the problem is drafting or closing a deal rather than fighting about one, that is transactional work rather than litigation, and I handle that too.
Whether the Fight Is Worth Having
Litigation is slow and expensive by design. That is not a flaw in the system, it is what happens when two sides are each entitled to be heard properly. Before you commit to it, you should know what you are committing to.
So the first conversation is not about how strong your case is. It is about what winning would actually be worth, what getting there would cost you in money and in time, and whether the person on the other side can pay if you do win. A judgment against someone with nothing is a piece of paper.
"My goal is to make clients as smart as we are so they can have a general understanding and make a final decision. Clients have the final say."
I do not guarantee outcomes, and no honest attorney can. What I will do is tell you where I think your odds sit, what I believe I can do to move them, and whether the distance between those two numbers is worth what the case will take out of your year. Sometimes the honest answer is that it is not, and I would rather tell you that in the first meeting than eighteen months into one.
I Started on the Defense Side
My first job out of law school was insurance defense. That means I spent the beginning of my career on the other side of the table, learning how a defendant's case gets built, how a claim gets valued by the people whose job is to pay as little as possible for it, and what makes a file settle instead of going to trial.
Thirty-six years later I still use that every year. When I tell you what I think the other side will do, it is not a guess about strangers. It is a read on a process I worked inside before I ever worked against it.
What Happens After You Call
You call the Livonia office and tell someone briefly what the dispute is about. Someone from the office gets back to you to set up a time to sit down.
Bring what you have. The contract if there is one, the emails, the invoices, the texts, the photographs, whatever documents the deal and whatever documents what went wrong. You do not need it organized. You need it present.
Then we go through it. I will tell you what I think you have, what I think it is worth, what the realistic path looks like, and how long that path usually takes. If a demand letter is likely to resolve it, I will say so, because that is often faster and cheaper than a lawsuit and it is frequently the right first move. If I think you should not bring the case at all, you will hear that too.
Where I Litigate
My office is in Livonia, Michigan, at 18306 Middlebelt Rd, and I keep a second office in Farmington. I handle civil matters in the circuit and district courts of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Monroe, and Livingston counties, and in federal court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Civil procedure is the same across the state and local practice is not. Filing conventions, scheduling habits, how a particular bench handles motions, and how long things actually take vary from one county to the next. After thirty-six years in these courthouses, that is something I already know rather than something I learn on your case.
Common Questions About Civil Litigation
Most civil disputes resolve before trial, often through a demand letter, negotiation, or facilitation rather than a verdict. Robert Akouri has practiced in Metro Detroit courts since 1990 and will tell a client honestly which path he expects a matter to take and why, including when he believes filing suit is not the right first step.
Akouri Law handles contract disputes, business disputes, and real estate litigation from its Livonia, Michigan office, in the circuit and district courts of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Monroe, and Livingston counties and in federal court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Ready to Talk?
Akouri Law offers a free initial consultation.
Call the Livonia office, describe the dispute, and you will get a plain answer on whether it is worth bringing and what the next step looks like.