Dispute Resolution: Trial

If you attempted to settle your dispute through litigation and it failed to happen, trial may be your best option. Virtually all litigation is settled. Often, the primary reason settlement through litigation does not occur is due to substantial disagreements over the monetary amount of settlement. You think you can get substantially more or pay substantially less in a trial. Your opponent believes that he or she can get more or pay less, as well. There is a parallel path here. Each side has to weigh their chances of winning at trial. Frequently someone grossly overestimates their chances at trial. Trial may wind up costing half as much as litigation did after everything is said and done.

Regardless, here you are trying your lawsuit, to settle your dispute. Each side’s case has strengths and weaknesses. Plus, there is the element of chance and human nature at play. If you lose big, you have more chances to settle. File for an appeal. The case may settle under circumstances similar to those at trial.

Going to Trial Offers Ample Opportunities to Settle

Was the Last Offer Better than Trial?

Settlement may happen before trial, once every party makes their entire case, looks at it as a whole, and decides that the last offer in mediation wasn’t so bad. I have settled a case at docket call, the proverbial settlement at the courthouse steps.

Can the Jury Influence Settlement?

If you are trying a case before a jury, it is possible that a settlement will occur after the jury is picked. Did you get a bad jury? Your chances of success may decrease, and a settlement number changes. I have also heard of cases that settled once the plaintiff has presented their case and before the defendant has presented their case. It is also not uncommon for a case to settle after the trial, but before the jury returns a verdict.