Personal Injury Law

Try the Case? Or Settle the Case?

By John A. Day

The age old question:  should I try it or accept the offer the defense has made?

This article in the New York Times reports on an article that will appear in the September edition of the Journal of Empiral Legal Studies on the subject on settling cases.  The article will address  a study of 2,054 cases that went to trial from 2002 to 2005.  The bottom line:  "“The lesson for plaintiffs is, in the vast majority of cases, they are perceiving the defendant’s offer to be half a loaf when in fact it is an entire loaf or more,' said Randall L. Kiser, a co-author of the study and principal analyst at DecisionSet, a consulting firm that advises clients on litigation decisions. "

The NYT article goes on to say as follows:  "Defendants made the wrong decision by proceeding to trial far less often, in 24 percent of cases, according to the study; plaintiffs were wrong in 61 percent of cases. In just 15 percent of cases, both sides were right to go to trial — meaning that the defendant paid less than the plaintiff had wanted but the plaintiff got more than the defendant had offered."

Full post as published by Day on Torts on August 11, 2008 (boomark / email).