Let’s discuss, some of the potential benefits of settling your personal injury case out of court as opposed to taking the case all the way to trial. And in doing so, I’ll also hit on some of the potential negatives or downsides to settling out of court and some of the potential upsides of actually going to trial with your personal injury claim.
So, first I want to touch on what I would say is probably the clearest and obvious benefit of settling out of court. And I want to first state that I’m talking more about settlements when you’re dealing with an insurance company or a corporation, and not necessarily a settlement with another individual. But generally speaking, by coming to an out of court settlement, you are in effect guaranteeing that you’re going to at least receive some money related to your claim. Whereas if you don’t settle and you take the case all the way to trial, you run the risk of losing at trial, and if you lose that trial, you’re not going to receive any money. You’ll walk away empty-handed. So by coming to a settlement agreement, you are in effect, eliminating the risk of losing at trial. that’s not to say there’s not some downside in coming to a settlement. In particular, one potential downside of doing
so is that if you go to trial, there’s a chance that you could be awarded an amount higher than what you were offered at settlement and potentially an amount significantly higher than what was awarded a settlement. So by reaching an out of court settlement, you are potentially leaving some money on the table. But again, in doing so, you are alleviating or eliminating the risk of losing altogether and walking away empty-handed. Another added benefit of settling your claim prior to trial is that by doing so, you are in effect assuring that you’re going to be receiving that money much earlier on than if you went to trial for a couple of reasons. Number one being obviously a settlement occurs prior to trial. So that in and of itself is going to assure that you’ll receive the money earlier on. And additionally, even if you’re successful at trial, you run the risk of the losing side appealing the ruling or appealing the monetary damages. And then the money is not going to be awarded to you until the appeals are resolved, and that could take a year, maybe even two years. So a couple of the benefits of settling your personal injury claim out of court prior to trial are you eliminate the risk of losing and walking away empty-handed, and you also assure that you’re probably going to be receiving the money much sooner on. So if you have any questions, you think you have a potential personal injury claim in Massachusetts, feel free to reach out to my office, and I’d be happy to meet with you and answer any questions you have.
