# Early case assessment
> Source: https://legalcode.md/skills/legalcode-early-case-assessment | [HTML version](https://legalcode.md/skills/legalcode-early-case-assessment)

Run a litigation early case assessment (ECA) to evaluate merits, evidence strength, procedural leverage, expected spend, and settlement posture before major discovery spend.

Run a litigation early case assessment (ECA) to evaluate merits, evidence strength, procedural leverage, expected spend, and settlement posture before major discovery spend. Use when legal teams need a defensible go/no-go recommendation, phase-based budget, risk-adjusted strategy branches, and executive-ready decision support for civil disputes across U.S., UK, AU, and other jurisdictions with localization markers.

Use this skill to produce a structured, defensible assessment of litigation position before full-scale discovery or trial preparation spend. This skill does: - Build an evidence-grounded merits assessment for claims and defenses - Classify risk and uncertainty across liability, damages, procedure, and enforcement - Estimate budget, cycle time, and leverage by case phase - Generate decision-ready strategy branches (litigate, settle, mixed) - Provide a transparent audit trail for assumptions and legal sources This skill does not: - Replace jurisdiction-specific legal advice from licensed counsel - Guarantee litigation outcomes - Draft final pleadings, witness statements, or expert reports This skill is jurisdiction-agnostic. Start by identifying governing law, forum, and procedural regime, then localize all outcome-significant analysis. [JURISDICTION-SPECIFIC] Always localize: - Pleading sufficiency and early-disposition standards - Disclosure/discovery scope and proportionality rules - Evidence preservation/spoliation sanctions framework - Pre-action obligations, ADR expectations, and cost-shifting rules - Interim-relief standards and timing Reference anchors frequently needed for ECA: - U.S. federal: FRCP 16, 26, 37(e) [VERIFY] - UK commercial: CPR, Pre-Action Conduct, PD 57AD, CPR Part 3 costs management [VERIFY] - Australia federal: Federal Court Act 1976 (Cth) s 37M, Federal Court Rules 2011, CPN-1 [VERIFY] Use interactive clarification whenever answers change risk classification ...

## Jurisdictions

Global



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*Legalcode -- legalcode.md*