Why Most Personal Injury Claims are Settled Before Trial

If you’ve never been involved in a personal injury claim, it’s easy to assume that serious claims eventually end up in front of a jury.

Most don’t.

The primary reason is surprisingly simple.

As a claim moves through the legal process, both sides gradually learn most of what there is to know about the evidence. Medical records are exchanged. Witnesses are interviewed. Documents are produced. Depositions may be taken.

Despite what people likely imagine and how litigation is dramatized in television and movies, by the time the parties are ready to proceed to trial, there are usually few, if any, surprises.

As each side gains a clearer understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the claim, they also gain a better sense of the range of outcomes a jury is likely to reach.

Once that happens, most disputes become easier to resolve by agreement.

Rather than accept the uncertainty, delay, expense, and risk of asking twelve strangers to decide the outcome, the parties often conclude that settling the claim by agreement is the more attractive choice.

That doesn’t mean either side believes it would definitely lose at trial.

It simply means both sides now have enough information to make an informed decision about the risks of continuing.

Not every claim settles.

Sometimes the parties honestly disagree about who caused the accident. Sometimes they disagree about the seriousness of the injuries. And sometimes they simply have very different views about what the claim is worth.

When that happens, the civil justice system provides another step: a trial, where a jury decides the disputed issues.

In that sense, trials remain incredibly important.

The possibility of a trial is what encourages reasonable settlement discussions in the first place. If neither side believed a jury might eventually decide the dispute, there would be far less incentive to compromise.

The important thing to remember is this:

If your claim settles before trial, that doesn’t mean something unusual happened. It means your claim followed the same path that most personal injury claims do. The legal process gave both sides enough information to evaluate the risks of trial, and they decided that reaching an agreement made more sense than asking a jury to decide the outcome.

General information—not legal advice. Paul’s Guide is not a law firm. This article provides general educational information and may not address every fact, exception, jurisdiction, or change in the law. Legal rights and deadlines vary based on the circumstances and applicable law. Reading this article, by itself, does not create an attorney-client relationship with Paul’s Guide or Paul Zimmerman. For advice about a specific claim, promptly consult a lawyer licensed in the appropriate jurisdiction