Iron Triangle

Every suit has two legal components: liability and damages. There is, however, a third component that has nothing to do with the legal merits of a case but has everything to do with the economics of a case: collectability.  These three components constitute the Iron Triangle.  

Liability

Liability refers to a legal obligation of some sort.  It is an obligation that may be imposed by contract, common law, or statutory law.  In any respect, it is any obligation that a court will enforce, essentially a justiciable issue. 

In Florida, this usually refers to a Cause of Action.  In federal courts, it refers to "a claim upon which relief can be granted." Other jurisdictions may have differing names for liability.  Regardless of the name, however, it is the essential issue in considering whether a plaintiff has a case.  No tickee, no laundry.  No liability, no case.  

Damages

Damages refers to legal harm for which a court will award monetary compensation.  Imagined, speculative, or unquantifiable harm is not sufficient.  Even a case in which there is certain liability is not worth bringing if there are no damages.

Uncertain damages, however, can be roughly quantified by extrapolating current figures or through the use of expert witnesses.  Other methods work as well.  Whatever the method used, the burden is on the plaintiff to establish damages.

As a general rule, the greater the damages the more difficult it is to quantify.  As with net worth, if you can identify it down to the last penny it cannot possibly be very much. Then again, as with all rules there are certainly exceptions.

Collectability

Collectability is a concept that has nothing to do with the practice of law but has every thing to do with the economics of law.  It refers to the ability of a judgment creditor to collect the judgment either from the debtor's assets or from the debtor's insurance carrier.  Without collectability, proof of liability and of damages is merely an academic exercise.  

Some plaintiffs, however, will proceed with litigation knowing they will never collect. In most cases they do so in order to establish a precedent or to prove a point.