I have been preparing for a large civil trial which is supposed to start next week. I represent a defendant corporation in a dispute with two individuals. We attempted to resolve the matter through court ordered mediation, but the parties were not able to come to an agreement. In a conference with the Judge that will be trying the case, he told us about a case he had recently presided over where the plaintiff had demanded $600,000, the defendant offered $400,000 and the plaintiff refused to settle. The case proceeded to trial and the verdict was in favor of the defendant, meaning that the plaintiff was awarded nothing.
This unfortunately is not an unusual situation. Besides the expense, litigation can be very dangerous. A Plaintiff who is demanding a large sum of money and refuses to settle has to be prepared to receive nothing if the case proceeds to trial. I am not familiar with the facts of that case so I am in no position to opine as to whether that particular plaintiff was being too greedy. Maybe the defendant was not offering enough money and the plaintiff had no choice but to proceed to trial. I do not know.
If you read my articles monthly, you will see that when it comes to settlement my belief is that a case will not settle unless and until both parties are willing to settle it. Whether one or both sides were being unreasonable in the case the Judge was telling us about is not the most important point. That point is that if you are willing to take a chance on going to trial, you have to be willing to lose everything. This is a corollary to you as we never know what a jury is going to do. And this rule is equally applicable to judges.
Please call the Law Offices of Richard A. Marcus for all of your family law and business litigation needs. We offer reasonable/competitive rates. For more information, please call 661-257-8877.