Should You Accept a Settlement in Business Litigation?

An Orange County business litigation lawyer provides assistance during civil litigation affecting you or your business. There are many different reasons why litigation may occur, as litigation is a primary method of resolving common disagreements that arise in business. You may be a plaintiff in business litigation if you are pursuing a case to assert your interests, or may be a defendant if a claim is being made against you. Whatever the situation, you need to know what to expect and how to protect your company. 

Brown & Charbonneau, LLP can help. Our legal team understands how legal disputes and court proceedings impact your long-term and short-term business goals and we can provide you with the guidance you need to make informed choices during the litigation process.

One of the key issues that we can help with is in determining if you should accept a settlement or not. Give us a call today to talk with an Orange County business litigation lawyer who can help you to answer this question and who can help you make an informed determination on whether settling makes sense.

Settling in Business Litigation

According to Research from Cornell University, a significant majority of civil cases settle outside of court instead of being resolved through a full trial in which a judge or jury renders a verdict.

A settlement can happen at any time in the process when a legal dispute has arisen. If your company wishes to pursue a lawsuit for a wrong you have endured, such as a supplier breaching a contract or an employee violating a non-disclosure agreement, you could file the lawsuit in the state or federal court with jurisdiction over the case. Settlement negotiations could begin before the case actually goes to trial, could continue during the civil court proceedings, and could actually continue right up until the time when a jury or judge is ready to render a verdict. If you opt to settle the case, then the proceedings would stop moving forward.

Settling occurs when a defendant makes an offer to a plaintiff that is attractive enough to get the plaintiff to agree to stop moving forward with the civil case in court. If you sued for copyright violations, for example, the violator might agree to pay your company damages for the violation and to stop using the copyrighted material going forward. You could accept this settlement, formally agree not to pursue further litigation arising out of the incidents which were settled, and collect the compensation offered to you.

Should You Accept a Settlement?

Whether you should accept a settlement or not is a complicated question that has to be decided on a case-by-case basis. You need to consider first and foremost whether the settlement offer is a fair one or not. An orange County business litigation lawyer can carefully review proposed terms of a settlement agreement, help you to understand how those terms compare to what a possible outcome might have been during court proceedings, and can provide you with assistance in determining if you’re being offered an acceptable amount of compensation or not. Once you have agreed to settle and accepted the settlement, you cannot go back on your decision or try to start pursuing a case again based on the resolved legal issues.

You also need to think about other factors as well, as you make the decision on whether to settle or not. For example, would there actually be money available to get a larger judgment than what is being offered? If you could get a bigger judgment but not collect due to hitting an insurance policy limit and/or a defendant having limited assets, then it may not be worthwhile to try to pursue a case only to be successful and not be able to get what is owed.

The stress of civil court proceedings; the uncertainty of a potential verdict; and a wide variety of other factors also come into play as you consider whether to accept a settlement or not. An Orange County business litigation lawyer can help you to make your choice.

Getting Help from An Orange County Business Litigation Lawyer

Brown & Charbonneau, LLP can provide you with invaluable assistance throughout all aspects of business litigation. Our experienced litigators have successfully negotiated favorable settlements for many of the companies that we represent. We work hard to help keep you out of court whenever possible while still getting the favorable outcomes that you deserve. We also assist you in making certain that you make smart choices about whether settling is in the best long-term interest of your business or whether your case should best be resolved in court.

To learn more about how an Orange County business litigation lawyer can help you throughout the process of resolving a dispute, give us a call at (866)237-8129 or contact us online today to speak with a member of our legal team.