It is typically more beneficial for our clients if we settle their case before it goes to court. It saves them the time and expense of it going to trial plus they’ll know exactly what they are going to get verse a jury making that decision.
To propose a settlement, we put together what is known as a settlement demand. A settlement demand consists of information from the case such as medical records, pictures of the accident, property damage estimates, extent of injuries, etc. Each settlement demand may have slightly different information depending on the circumstances of the case. For example, a slip and fall case won’t have property damage estimates but it may have pictures of what caused our client’s injuries. We will also include a letter in every demand explaining what is included and why we think our case is worth our demand figure.
While we typically don’t get the demand figure we initially asked for, but it is a way to start negotiations and try to settle the case before we go to trial. If you have any other questions about settlement demands we would love to hear from you.