If you’ve ever experienced an injury or your property received damage because of someone else’s carelessness, you may have thought about getting a settlement offer.
While your parents, older relatives, or older associates may tell you to sue the negligent person responsible for your misfortune, the fact is that lawsuits can be more trouble than what they’re worth. Once you consider the difficulties of a full-blown case and trial, you’re most likely doing everything you can to reach a settlement outside of court before all else.
However, this same “hassle-free” step also comes with a potential risk: the danger of settling for less than what you should be getting.
The reality of bad settlement offers
Although most cases settle out of court before proceeding to trial, many of these sans-legal proceeding settlements don’t always go smoothly because of disagreements on offers.
Given the lack of a legal presence in such a situation, anyone seeking justice and compensation for their troubles will most likely find themselves disgruntled with what they received after a negligent party tries to lowball them. At some point or another, cases settled through such means end up having to pay a premium for a resolution or simply seek legal action because of the offer they receive. But how do you know that the settlement offer being made to you is fair?
The defining characteristics of a satisfactory offer
Traditionally, many legal experts believe that the measure of a satisfactory settlement or offer is when both parties walk away happy—a result that is achieved when:
- A defendant ends up paying more than they wanted to shell out
- A plaintiff accepts less than they wanted to accept for their troubles
However, the current state of legality in New York law deems that these criteria are not as sufficient as they used to be because the full long-term effect of negligence is clearer than ever.
Nowadays, there are several factors that any plaintiff can watch out for when determining whether or not they should accept a settlement that is being offered to them. At Ronemus & Vilensky, we rely on using a handful of different factors to help our clients figure out if they’re receiving (or paying, contrarily) enough for their troubles—some of which include:
Judgment value matching
One of the most important factors that will easily allow you to determine whether or not a settlement is fair is when an offer lines up with a projected judgment value—which is determined through identifiable costs. If you can identify what specific costs are owed to you for your troubles, you will have a stronger basis to determine if the settlement offered to you (or the other way around) is sufficient.
Determined fault
Another significant factor that you must consider when determining an offer’s adequacy is the presence of determined fault stemming from the analysis of the potential case.
Typically, cases wherein a determined fault completely falls on the hands of a party (meaning 100 percent) merit the need for a complainant or plaintiff to accept a settlement offer without any decrease. Contrarily, a plaintiff that only has a marginal chance of 70 percent of prevailing on liability if a case is settled in court is urged to accept 70 percent of their offer as a sufficient settlement!
If you want to help ensure that the settlement you’re getting is sufficient for the trouble that you’ve experienced or caused, then be sure to enlist the services of Ronemus & Vilensky’s experts today!
Conclusion
Receiving a settlement outside of court can prove to be a rather complicated and challenging effort because of the risk of receiving and accepting a less-than-sufficient offer. With this guide’s and an expert’s help, you’ll have an easier time determining just how much is owed to you based on your troubles (or for someone else’s)!
Whether you’re dealing with a wrongful arrest lawsuit settlement or looking for someone that specializes in false arrest lawsuit settlements, it pays to have a team of wrongful arrest lawyers in NYC by your side. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our services!