{"id":32344,"date":"2009-03-24T10:08:17","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T14:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/how_to_get_the_best_settlement\/"},"modified":"2024-12-17T16:01:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T21:01:09","slug":"how-to-get-the-best-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Get The Best Settlement In A Personal Injury Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This past month our firm handled two different cases which both illustrate how to get the best possible settlement for a client in a personal injury case.  It is oftentimes said that many cases settle on the courthouse steps.  This is true.  The reason for this is because if the case is not settled, it will have to be presented to a jury at considerable expense and with great time and effort by all parties.  The uncertainty of what a jury might do, either returning a greater award than the defense would like to pay or a lesser award that the plaintiff hopes to get is the basis for compromise.  However, unless counsel for a plaintiff who has been injured through the negligence of another is ready for trial it is almost guaranteed that before will not receive the best possible settlement for his or her client.<\/p>\n<p>The two cases we have handled here recently are like many others we have handled in the past.  Settlement offers were not made until it was demonstrated to the insurance carrier that counsel was ready for trial and was ready in a professional manner to present the case in such a manner as to likely receive from a jury more than the defense was previously willing to pay.  In both cases, no offer was made until the case reached the courthouse steps.  If counsel had not prepared the case of trial diligently and professionally through taking videotaped depositions, preparing demonstrative exhibits for the jury, submitting Requests to Charge relative to the legal and factual issues involved, marking all exhibits, subpoenaing all witnesses, etc., the insurance company would likely have gambled and defended the case will full knowledge that plaintiff\u2019s counsel was not prepared.  However, once the defense attorney and the insurance company got to the courthouse steps and realized that their adversary (in this case our firm) was prepared to proceed professionally, they offered to settle the matters for the actual value of the cases.  In short, they made an offer of what we all along had been willing to accept thus obviating the need for a jury trial.<\/p>\n<p>The main point of this blog entry is to emphasize something that we have known for years but which the public may not fully appreciate.  Cases do not settle for their maximum value unless they are properly prepared by experienced trial counsel.  In neither of the cases we have referenced, would there ever have been an offer of settlement made at any time unless the case had been properly prepared.  Once the insurance carrier realized that plaintiff\u2019s counsel was prepared to proceed in front of the jury and could, in fact, proceed in a professional manner and would make an effective presentation, then and only then did they pay the fair settlement value of the case.  Had our firm not been prepared to proceed as professional advocates on behalf of our clients we would not have achieved the best possible settlement for our clients.  The two cases that we write about were both very tough cases on liability, which were hotly contested.  The insurance carriers may have continued to make no offer if they believed that plaintiff\u2019s counsel was not prepared to put up a strong case.  Once plaintiff\u2019s counsel showed up on the courthouse steps with subpoenas, witnesses, exhibits, videotaped presentations and all the other necessary ingredients for a successful trial, the insurance company folded and the clients received fair settlements.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading How To Get The Best Settlement In A Personal Injury Case\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past month our firm handled two different cases which both illustrate how to get the best possible settlement for a client in a personal injury case. It is oftentimes said that many cases settle on the courthouse steps. This is true. The reason for this is because if the case is not settled, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-32344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-injury-wrongful-death","tag-personal-injury"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How To Get The Best Settlement In A Personal Injury Case &#8212; Trial Attorney Blog &#8212; March 24, 2009<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This past month our firm handled two different cases which both illustrate how to get the best possible settlement for a client in a personal injury case. &#8212; March 24, 2009\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"How To Get The Best Settlement In A Personal Injury Case &#8212; Trial Attorney Blog &#8212; March 24, 2009\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"This past month our firm handled two different cases which both illustrate how to get the best possible settlement for a client in a personal injury case. &#8212; March 24, 2009\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Finch McCranie, LLP\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How To Get The Best Settlement In A Personal Injury Case &#8212; Trial Attorney Blog &#8212; March 24, 2009","description":"This past month our firm handled two different cases which both illustrate how to get the best possible settlement for a client in a personal injury case. &#8212; March 24, 2009","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"How To Get The Best Settlement In A Personal Injury Case &#8212; Trial Attorney Blog &#8212; March 24, 2009","twitter_description":"This past month our firm handled two different cases which both illustrate how to get the best possible settlement for a client in a personal injury case. &#8212; March 24, 2009","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Finch McCranie, LLP","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/"},"author":{"name":"Finch McCranie, LLP","@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4c607d19a3fdb947c462210c077ff4a4"},"headline":"How To Get The Best Settlement In A Personal Injury Case","datePublished":"2009-03-24T14:08:17+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-17T21:01:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/"},"wordCount":761,"keywords":["Personal Injury"],"articleSection":["Personal Injury &amp; Wrongful Death"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/","url":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/","name":"How To Get The Best Settlement In A Personal Injury Case &#8212; Trial Attorney Blog &#8212; March 24, 2009","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-03-24T14:08:17+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-17T21:01:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4c607d19a3fdb947c462210c077ff4a4"},"description":"This past month our firm handled two different cases which both illustrate how to get the best possible settlement for a client in a personal injury case. &#8212; March 24, 2009","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/how-to-get-the-best-settlement\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How To Get The Best Settlement In A Personal Injury Case"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/","name":"Trial Attorney Blog","description":"Published by Georgia Trial Lawyers \u2014 Finch McCranie, LLP","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4c607d19a3fdb947c462210c077ff4a4","name":"Finch McCranie, LLP","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ac10eb5fe0f322f70ad7a84f6c73584e7381799013c841fb9f2ecf347e28d71?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ac10eb5fe0f322f70ad7a84f6c73584e7381799013c841fb9f2ecf347e28d71?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ac10eb5fe0f322f70ad7a84f6c73584e7381799013c841fb9f2ecf347e28d71?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Finch McCranie, LLP"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33274,"href":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32344\/revisions\/33274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}