You’ve been injured due to someone else’s negligence and now your Colorado Springs personal injury law firm wants you to settle out of court.
Sounds great! But what does reaching a resolution before trial via an out of court settlement really mean?
Trial or Settlement?
There are two common resolutions for personal injury lawsuits:
Resolution by Trial
In some cases, there will be a trial after the parties conclude their investigation and discovery work. After the trial, either the judge or a jury will decide whether to award the plaintiff any money and, if so, how much to award.
Resolution by Settlement
The other way to resolve a personal injury claim is through settlement. A settlement is an agreement between both sides in which the defendant pays a certain amount to the plaintiff in exchange for dismissing the lawsuit.
How Do Personal Injury Settlements Work?
The parties, their personal injury law firm, and any insurance companies involved will be the ones reaching a settlement.
The defendant’s car insurer is part of these discussions in most car accident cases because they are the ones on the hook for any amounts the plaintiff gets in a settlement or after a trial. Many cases settle after direct talks between those parties.
Sometimes, a judge or a mediator may work with the parties to help them come to an agreement. Either way, the result will usually involve the payment of money to the plaintiff and his or her personal injury law firm.
The amount the plaintiff gets will be the settlement amount minus the agreed-upon sum paid to the plaintiff’s lawyer for fees, along with any costs the personal injury law firm paid out-of-pocket.
Also, your personal injury law firm will likely pay any unpaid doctor or hospital bills out of the settlement amount before the rest of the money winds up in the plaintiff’s hands.
Your Personal Injury Law Firm is Taking the Road Most Traveled
Parties can settle at any point between the first moment a plaintiff makes a claim up until right before a trial wraps up. And the fact is that most personal injury lawsuits end in a settlement.
The many personal injury law firms in Colorado Springs file thousands of injury lawsuits every year. However, only about four to five percent of our local injury lawsuits end in a trial, and a handful of cases end in a ruling by a judge before trial. This means that well over 90 percent of personal injury cases settle before trial.
Try this: Search the local area for Colorado Springs injury lawsuit settlements.
Why Do Most Personal Injury Cases Settle?
There are two main reasons so many personal injury cases settle: certainty and cost.
Taking a case to trial involves risk. No matter how strong each side thinks their case is, a judge or 12 jurors may see things differently.
A defendant could lose the case with a huge verdict in an amount much larger than they could have paid in a settlement.
On the other hand, an injury victim could walk away with nothing at trial after leaving money on the table in settlement talks.
Risks aside, taking a personal injury case to trial can be expensive and time-consuming. Sure, plaintiffs don’t have to pay their personal injury law firms any attorney’s fees unless they recover money. But insurance companies must pay their lawyers no matter what.
The insurer may feel that it has a rock-solid case that will result in a ruling in their favor. However, it can cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyer’s fees to get there.
A “victory” could still leave the insurance company in a big hole. That’s why they settle. They may think they’re paying the plaintiff more than they should, but they also know they won’t pay a fortune to their lawyers.
Why Your Personal Injury Law Firm May Take a Case to Trial
In that 5-10 % of cases which don’t settle, the reasons can include:
- The defendant or their insurer believes that the plaintiff’s settlement demand is greater than the likely costs of a trial.
- The insurer or defendant denies all fault and feels they have a very strong case.
- The defendant’s settlement offer is way too low.
- The insurer doesn’t believe your injury claims.
Summary
In this post, we defined out of court settlements and explained how they work and why most personal injury lawsuits do in fact settle out of court.
As the best personal injury attorneys in Colorado Springs will tell you, the best way to get a good settlement is to be ready to go to trial. The insurance company needs to know they are in for a fight.
Find Out If You Have a Case
Have you or a loved one been injured due to someone else’s negligence? If so you will want an aggressive personal injury law firm who is ready to go the distance. You want to make sure your law firm is as prepared to fight as they are eager to settle.
Contact King & Beaty to schedule your free consultation with an injury attorney to find out if you have a case.
Call (719) 505-9999
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