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When a case gets settled, both sides of an issue agree on the decisions on which a resolution of the same issue has been based. A case can get settled without any involvement of the court system.

How issues of money relate to a settlement?

Both a settlement and a court case end with a decision on how much money the defendant will owe to the plaintiff. Yet with a settlement, the 2 parties have a rough idea, concerning the size of that compensation. Although the settlement amount is negotiated, the negotiations start with an offer that has been come from the insurance company.

Moreover, the insurance company does not pull its offer from the air. It takes into consideration that demand presented by the victim or the Personal Injury Lawyer in Corner Brook representing him or her, in a letter. Unlike a court case, the amount of money awarded to the victim/plaintiff must remain within a narrow range, a range defined by the initial demand and the responding offer.

Major differences between a settlement and the granting of an award, as the result of a court case:

A victim that has agreed to a settlement has no right of appeal. That is why insurance companies tend to prefer settling to fighting an opponent in court. Once a victim has agreed to an offer made by an insurance company, that same victim cannot seek more money, if he or she learns that a given injury is more serious than the doctor’s prognosis had suggested.

Accident victims that agree to settle with an opposing party manage to avoid the chance that a part of their private lives might get revealed in a courtroom. The court does not ask that the lawyers for the plaintiff or the defendant respect that other party’s privacy. Each lawyer has the right to ask any question allowed by the judge.

Sometimes such a question can force the person on the witness stand to divulge information that had not previously been shared with members of the public. That feature highlights a second difference between settling and fighting things out in court.

Finally, the victim’s readiness to settle aids consideration of the level of the victim’s emotional stress, before a settlement gets reached. A judge does not allow discussion of a plaintiff’s emotional stress in a courtroom. That fact works in the favor of the victim. It can force the insurance company to increase the size of its offer.

That is another reason that insurance companies put pressure on claimants to settle. That limits the amount of time during which the issue of emotional stress might enter the picture. Insurance companies tend to prefer discussion of issues that do not allow for mention of the stress placed on the victim.