You have already been through a ton. You were injured due to no fault of your own and suffered tremendously due to your injuries. Now you have been through the entire lawsuit process including depositions, interrogatories, facilitation, settlement conferences, etc. The trial date is quickly approaching and there is an offer that has been made to settle your case short of trial. What should you do? Should you settle your case or take it to trial?

Liability Issue Cases

One of the most common reasons why a case goes to trial is due to a serious issue with regard to who caused the accident or who is responsible for the accident. In these scenarios, the result at trial is often all or nothing. That means that a jury will either find in your favor 100% or they will find that your case has no merit. If the jury finds that your case has no merit you will get zero. These are often the riskiest types of trials due to the all or nothing nature of the decision.

Causation Issue Cases

In these cases, there is often a clear liability accident. However, the insurance company believes that, while you may have injuries, they are not related to the accident at issue. Here, your doctors may be telling the jury that your injuries are related to the accident while the defendants’ doctors are telling the jury that none of your injuries are related to the accident and they are as a result of your age or prior injury. These cases are also risky to take to trial due to the fact that, Jury could choose to believe either set of doctors.

Money Issue Cases

Here, both the Plaintiff and the Defendant believe that you were injured, and that that injury was as a result of a clear liability accident. However, the two parties are stuck with widely different opinions as to what your case is worth. Therefore, this case can be risky to take to trial because a jury may have a very conservative opinion as to the value of injuries compared to what is already being offered.

Trials Are Very Risky

Whenever making a decision of whether or not to take an offer before going to trial, you must take into consideration the fact that you will be risking 100% of what is being offered to you. It is important to analyze what amount you would be “netting out” of the settlement…meaning the amount that your check would be!

Prior to a trial, the costs of the case are usually relatively minimal. If a case proceeds all the way to trial, the costs of the case become quite significant. Usually, the costs of an average personal injury case will be less than $5000. A case that is taken to trial often will have costs that exceed $30,000. Therefore, if the jury comes back with an amount of money that is equal to the amount of money that is being offered, then you are going to net out less money because of the increase in cost as a result of taking the case to trial.  For example:

Example of a Case Settled Before Trial

• Settlement:  $100,000.00
• Costs:  $1,000.00
• Attorney fee is one-third of $99,000.00 or $33,000.00
• Net to Client:  $66,000.00

Example of a Case Taken To Trial

• Jury Verdict:  $100,000.00
• Costs:  $25,000.00
• Attorney fee is one-third of $75,000.00 or $25,000.00
• Net to Client $50,000.00

The Time Value of Money

No matter what the jury decides, the defendant or defense is likely to appeal. A trial appeal process is approximately two years or more. So, even if you were to win a trial or get an amount equal to what was being offered before trial, the two years on appeal reduces the value of your money because of the fact that you will not see it for 2 to 3 years after the date of trial. This is definitely something to consider. A person who wins their injury case often believes that they have won and that the case is over…simply not true.  The jury verdict is just the beginning of the appeals process.

Some Decisions Are Easy

When there is no offer being made or an amount of money is being offered that is simply ridiculously small, it is easy to decide to take a case to trial. The more difficult decision is when a significant amount of money is being offered prior to trial. Here, serious considerations should be made as to all of the above when deciding to reject an offer and take the case to trial.

Less, More, or the Same

Always keep in mind that at trial you could get more, less, the same or zero. It is your risk and your gamble. Always listen to the experienced lawyer that you entrusted with your case. Your lawyer has been through this before and can give you qualified advice with regard to what to do.

If you need a lawyer who is experienced in handling cases from the inception through trial, call the experience lawyers at Femminineo Law at 855-65-CRASH or go to getdavidgetpaid.com.