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Why do most Jones Act cases settle before trial? Will your Jones act case settle before
trial or are you going to be forced to go in front of a judge or a jury? Well a lot
of times our clients will ask us those questions and they're very good questions. One of the
main reasons Jones Act cases typically settle before trial and a majority of them do, is
because of the value of the case. Let me explain what I mean by that. When you have a Jones
Act case that's been properly prepared for trial, typically you'll have experts who can
come in and prove fault on the part of the company. They will have evaluated the testimony,
they will have evaluated the fact of the case. A lot of the times these experts can point
out to a jury or a judge what was done wrong and what could have been done different to
prevent your accident. So the first thing to understand is that if the company does
choose to go to court against you, they could lose the case. Typically in a Jones Act case,
you're going to have enough proof to win your case. Another big reason that most Jones Act
cases settle before trial is simply the amount of damage that's typically involved. If you
have an injury that's fairly serious, it's most likely going to prevent you from going
back to full, full duty work and earning as much as you use to make. If you're making
half-way decent money out there and even if you're middle aged, you're going to have hundreds
of thousands of dollars in lost wages. If you're a younger person making higher money,
it can quickly add up to a million or two million dollars or more in lost wages. So
another reason most companies will make fair settlements before trial is that if they chose
to go to trial, the jury can a lot of times award very, very significant money for lost
wages. Um, another reason Jones Act cases tend to settle before trial is simply the
nature of the case. And what I mean by that is, Jones Act cases, the settlements are usually
paid for by insurance companies. These companies are in the business of taking in premiums
and investing it and making their money that way. Typically these insurance companies are
not in the business of going in a courtroom and fighting in front of a jury and trying
to keep a little bit more in their pocket than they're willing to offer you. So a lot
of times if a case is handled in a typical fashion, the company will evaluate it, he'll
say if you go to court you may win, if you go to court you may lose and you'll have to
pay this much. So a lot of times the sensible insurance company will evaluate that and say,
I tell you what, let's offer him something in-between there and if they don't accept
it maybe we increase it a little bit and see if we can keep them interested in it. Now
some cases do end up having to go to court but the majority of Jones Act cases settle
before trial and those are most of the reasons they do. Call us if you have any questions
at all about your situation, we can discuss whether we think it's a case that like a majority
of them is going to get settle before it has to go to court. Or if maybe you have some
unique situation where the company would just force you to take your case to court. It's
not very likely at all, again the majority of Jones Act cases get settled before court.