What Is The Difference Between a Settlement and a Trial?

What Is The Difference Between a Settlement and a Trial?

Key Takeaways

• Knowing the difference between a settlement and a trial won't matter if you fail to make a claim within the required two years after an accident. If you miss that deadline, you will lose your right to recover those damages.
• Taking a settlement in a personal injury claim often makes sense when the offer fully accounts for your medical expenses, lost wages, future care needs, and pain and suffering.
• Going to trial in a personal injury claim is often appropriate when the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement that reflects the true value of your injuries and losses.

Understanding the difference between a settlement and a trial is an important first step after an accident, especially when deciding how to pursue legal action. After an injury, you may resolve your claim through a settlement or by filing a lawsuit that proceeds to trial. Settlements typically involve negotiating with the at-fault party outside of court, while a trial requires presenting your case before a judge or jury.

When negotiating with the opposing party, settlement offers and counteroffers can be exchanged until an agreement is reached. Accepting a settlement eliminates the need for a trial and brings the case to a conclusion.

If you were injured in an accident in Tampa through no fault of your own, reaching out to an experienced personal injury attorney can help you determine which option may be best for your situation moving forward.

Video Transcript:

Ever wonder how they come up with those big settlement numbers? Let me explain how personal injury claims are calculated. Personal injury claims basically follow the same pattern no matter what the injury is, what causes the injury, whether it's a car accident, a slip and fall, a trip and fall, any other type of product defect case causing an injury, the evaluation and calculation of damages is always the same.

Let's take a car accident case, the most typical type of personal injury case. In a car accident case, the first thing we're going to do is look at who caused the accident. Is it extremely 100% clear that the other person was the sole cause of the accident or are we dealing with a situation where our client is partly at fault also? or in some cases we have multiple defendants that contributed to the cause of the accident.

First we're dealing with fault. Oftentimes it's 100% the fault of the other driver. Let's say in a car accident case in Florida we follow something called a contributory fault which means that even if the driver admits that they're at fault they can also claim that our client was partly at fault themselves. So that gets taken into account.

The second thing that is put into the evaluation and calculation of a personal injury claim is the amount of your damages. And your damages are essentially broken down into economic damages and non-economic damages. And the economic damages are generally medical bills up to the date of a settlement. We call those past medical bills and then a calculation of what your future medical bills are going to be as a result of your injuries.

So, we're taking all of that past and future medical bills into account. We're also taking into account the extent of your lost wages. And when we go to resolve your claim or settle your claim, anything from that day in the past is called past lost wages. Anything in the future that you haven't yet lost but are expected to lose is called loss of earning capacity.

A perfect example would be a client who works a manual labor job. Let's say they build homes. They're a brick layer. And as a result of the accident, they can no longer be a brick layer making $50,000 a year and they don't have the other educational background to go out there and do a job making the similar amount of money. So those clients sometimes have a loss of earning capacity. They're not going to be unable to work for the rest of their lives. They're just going to be unable to make as much as they did prior to the accident.

We calculate that loss of earning capacity. We use experts such as vocational rehabilitation experts to help us determine what the loss of earning capacity is. And then to calculate those damages, we also bring in an economist which is required under the law to bring all of that future loss of earning capacity back to present value.

Those are the economic damages, the medical bills and lost wages, past and future. Then we have the non-economic damages that are broken down into what is generally referred to as pain and suffering. But in Florida, pain and suffering is really seven different elements. You’ve got compensation for your pain, your suffering, your mental anguish, your inconvenience, your loss of enjoyment of life, and your disability and scarring. Pain and suffering is the term we commonly use, but it’s really seven different elements.

We then also figure out what your past pain and suffering is worth. We also work with your doctors and other experts, we figure out what type of non-economic pain and suffering damages you're going to have in the future. So that goes into the evaluation of your future pain and suffering.

So all of those things start with how the accident happened. One of the things that are really important in car accident cases is what does the damage look like to the cars? Is it just a tiny dent on the bumper or is your car total? All of those factors go into the evaluation and calculation of damages in a personal injury claim.

If you have any other questions regarding the calculation or worth of your personal injury claim, please give me a call at 813-915-1110. I'll be happy to discuss it with you. The consultation's always free. We can do it over the phone. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. 

Key Terms

When discussing the difference between a settlement and a trial, here are some key terms you need to know:

• Litigation: The formal process of resolving a claim through the court system rather than through an out-of-court settlement
• Lawsuit: A formal legal action filed in a Florida court by the plaintiff (you) against the defendant (the at-fault party) to seek a legal remedy for a claimed wrong
• Out-of-court Settlement: A settlement reached before a trial begins, without a judge or jury deciding the outcome of the case
• In-court Settlement: A settlement that occurs after a lawsuit has been filed, and sometimes even after a trial has started, but before a verdict is reached
• Trial: A formal court proceeding where a judge or jury examines the evidence and arguments presented by both sides to determine who is at fault and how much compensation the plaintiff (you) should receive

When To Take A Settlement

In Florida, taking a settlement in a personal injury claim often makes sense when the offer fully accounts for your medical expenses, lost wages, future care needs, and pain and suffering. It’s also important to consider whether you’ve reached maximum medical improvement (MMI), so the long-term impact of your injuries is clear before agreeing to a final amount.

Finally, factors like insurance policy limits, the strength of the evidence, comparative negligence issues, and the time, cost, and uncertainty of litigation all play a role in deciding whether a settlement is the right choice. A knowledgeable personal injury attorney from our firm will be able to help you make that decision.

Video Transcript:

You’ve been in an accident within the past week, and now you’re being pressured to settle your case by the other insurance company. So let’s talk about why this happens and what you should do.

A lot of times, the insurance adjuster for the at-fault party is going to be calling you shortly after the accident trying to get you to settle your case for less than it’s worth.

Oftentimes in a car accident, you do not know the extent of your injuries in the first week. Oftentimes, you don’t know whether your injuries are going to be temporary, whether they’re going to last a month, three months, six months, or whether they’re going to give you permanent problems for the rest of your life.

But what the insurance companies want to do — and they’re trained to do it — is they want to get you to sign off and accept a small amount of money within a very short period of time before you figure out that your injuries aren’t going to go away within a few weeks.

The first thing I can recommend is never sign a settlement agreement with an insurance company before you talk to an attorney.

Oftentimes, if it’s a very minor accident and you have been to a doctor and they have said you’re fine, and you trust that doctor, you might not even need an attorney, and we’ll tell you that.

But in a lot of other cases where a client will come to us within a week or so after the accident still complaining of neck pain, back pain, or some other type of pain as a result of that car accident, we will get you to the right doctor so that they can properly diagnose what your injuries are and, just as importantly, what the prognosis is.

The prognosis being how long they expect you to have problems, whether that problem is going to be permanent, and whether it’s going to create chronic injuries that you’re going to be left with for years to come.

So the short answer is: don’t sign any type of settlement agreement before you speak with an attorney.

If you do, there’s really nothing an attorney can do for you. The rules are very specific in that regard. The case law is very specific in that regard.

If you sign a settlement agreement called a release of claims, you have just released all your claims forever and won’t have any type of recourse against the at-fault party if you determine later on that you are injured and that you are still having problems.

If you have any other questions about an insurance adjuster reaching out to you and pressuring you to settle, please give us a call at 813-915-1110. I'd be happy to consult with you and answer any questions you might have. The consultation's always free.

When To Go To Trial

In Florida, going to trial in a personal injury claim is often appropriate when the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement that reflects the true value of your injuries and losses. But the reality is that only a small percentage of personal injury plaintiffs ever see the inside of a courtroom.

You Have Limited Time To Take Action

The time limit for filing a personal injury lawsuit is two years after the date of the accident. In a typical trial, a jury or court may award compensatory, or actual, damages for losses and injuries resulting from the opposing party’s negligent conduct.

Knowing the difference between a settlement and a trial won't matter if you fail to make a claim within that time. If you miss the two-year deadline, you will lose your right to recover those damages.

Know The Difference Between A Settlement And A Trial

An experienced personal injury lawyer will be able to explain to you the difference between a settlement and a trial and which option is best for you. You may recover punitive damages in cases of gross negligence or intentional misconduct, but you may not know it unless you talk with an attorney. To find out what damages may be available to you after a personal injury accident, schedule a meeting with one of our lawyers by calling 813-915-1110 today.

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