Reply #10: With attorneys fees to pay, probably.

[Xithras]

If the company went bankrupt, then you're just another creditor competing for a slice of whatever scraps are left. Even worse, if the bankruptcy proceedings end before the trial concludes, you could win a victory and find that there is nothing left to tap at that point. You get nothing.

The trick here is that the people filing the suit could potentially be on the hook to their attorneys. Many attorneys will argue a case for a percentage of the proceeds, but that concept can get sticky if they win a dollar amount and are unable to collect anything. I know of several cases where the attorneys STILL expected to be paid their "cut", even though the plaintiff was never actually able to collect on the award. It's a fairly unscrupulous thing to do, but it does happen.

Normally attorneys won't take cases like these in the first place, because they understand that the chances of actually collecting anything are next to nil.