While meeting with an Antioch personal injury attorney and filing a lawsuit are the first steps towards obtaining compensation, it doesn’t mean that you will wind up in a courtroom months or years later.
While injured Americans file hundreds of thousands of personal injury lawsuits every year, only about four to five percent of those cases go to a full trial. That means that around 95% of all personal injury lawsuits end without a trial. While some suits conclude with a pre-trial ruling by a judge, the overwhelming majority of personal injury lawsuits end with a settlement.
Why do so many personal injury cases settle? Cost and certainty are the primary reasons. Taking a personal injury lawsuit through trial not only can take a long time, it can also cost defendants and insurance companies enormous amounts in legal fees. Even if the insurer strongly believes that it has a solid defense and that the plaintiff doesn’t deserve anything in compensation, it still may offer a substantial amount to settle a case because it may ultimately cost them less than defending the case tooth and nail.
Additionally, both parties to a personal injury lawsuit take a significant risk going to trial. There is always a chance that the 12 people on a jury will come back with a verdict which either costs a defendant a lot more than they could have settled for or leaves the injury victim with nothing when they could have agreed to a sizeable settlement.
Even though most cases settle, an experienced and tenacious Antioch personal injury attorney should never approach an injury case thinking it will get resolved quickly. Your attorney needs to be prepared to take every case to trial, and the defendant needs to know that your lawyer is ready and willing to go the distance.
