When people consider hiring one of the Auto Accident Attorneys in Lacey WA to help them obtain compensation for a serious injury and related expenses, they may be surprised to learn how many injury cases are settled out of court. About 95 percent of these cases never go to trial. Avoiding trial is actually very beneficial for the claimants in the vast majority of cases. Unless the situation is extraordinary and has the potential for a jury to award millions in damages, lawyers generally encourage their clients to accept a settlement as long as that settlement offer is reasonable.
First, bringing an injury case to trial can take many months or even years. Most people dealing with the aftermath of a severe injury need money faster than that. Second, a settlement is guaranteed money, while a trial has no guarantees. A jury could award less than the settlement that had originally been offered or could even find in favor of the defendant.
Instead, Auto Accident Attorneys in Lacey WA usually negotiate with the insurance company to arrive at a mutually satisfactory amount of compensation. This might mean that the client doesn’t receive as much as he or she had hoped for, but receives an amount that is better than the insurer’s original, and somewhat low, offer. Lawyers typically can advise their clients on a ballpark figure to expect in a settlement. A firm such as Putnam Lieb Potvin Attorneys at Law arrives at this figure because of years of experience, knowledge of current trends, and review of the case history.
Insurance companies, even though they may offer an unreasonably low settlement initially, typically want to resolve this situation without going to trial. Proceeding to court is expensive for them, and they have similar risks with a jury that the plaintiff does. They don’t want to risk a jury requiring a monetary award some five or ten times higher than what the plaintiff and his or her lawyer had asked for. There’s also a reputation factor. Settling does not necessarily involve admitting liability. In contrast, if a jury finds for the plaintiff, those people have determined that the insurer’s client is, indeed, responsible for the incident.
