So Says a Study from The Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.
The Journal of Empirical Legal Studies published a recent study based on 2,054 cases tried from 2002-2005. From those surveyed cases, 61% of plaintiffs received verdicts less than the last settlement offer, while 24% of defendants made the wrong decision by paying out less than plaintiff originally demanded but more than they offered. Defendants and plaintiffs, only 15% of the time, made the right decision to proceed to trial. Plaintiffs, however, bear less risk than defendants in failing to settle: the delta between offer and verdict for plaintiffs was only $5,700, compared to $1.1 million for defendants. We thank Randy Erickson, a well known construction defect mediator, for summarizing this study in his recent article “Tactics and Strategies for Mediating the Multi-Party Complex Construction Case,” published in the March 2010 edition of The Orange County Lawyer.
Now, some fun quotes on the topic of settlement:
- “It’s the perfect definition of a settlement. Both parties didn’t get what they wanted.” --David Geffen
- “Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.” --Oscar Wilde
- “In Hollywood, an equitable divorce settlement means each party gets fifty percent of the publicity.” –Lauren Bacall
- “Conrad Hilton was very generous to me in the
divorce settlement. He gave me 5000 Gideon Bibles.” --Zsa Zsa Gabor
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