When it comes to truck accident lawsuits, two terms are commonly used to refer to how compensation is obtained and a case is resolved: settlement and verdict. Although both terms relate to the resolution of a legal case, they have different meanings and implications.
The outcome of a truck accident lawsuit, whether it's a settlement or verdict, can shape what accountability and justice look like. For truck crash victims and their families, it’s important to understand the nuances between settlements and verdicts, their processes, advantages, limitations, and differences.
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No other law firm knows trucks quite like us. Our trucking law expertise and trial experience allow us to win multi-million-dollar results year after year.
Our team of truck accident attorneys works tirelessly to help your family find justice in the wake of a catastrophic truck crash.
Referrals & Co-Counsel
No other law firm knows trucks quite like us. Our trucking law expertise and trial experience allow us to win multi-million-dollar results year after year.
Involved in a Crash?
Our team of truck accident attorneys works tirelessly to help your family find justice in the wake of a catastrophic truck crash.
What is a Settlement?
A settlement is an agreement reached between the parties involved in a legal dispute. While settlements can be reached before, during, or even after a trial, their main goal is to provide a means to resolve legal conflict without the need for a jury verdict.
The vast majority of truck crash lawsuits end in a settlement.
The Process of Reaching a Truck Accident Settlement
In trucking wreck cases, settlements are a contract between the crash victim (or their family) and the defendant(s). The terms of that contract must be negotiated and agreed upon by the parties in your case, which may include the trucking company, truck driver, mechanic shop, broker, and more, depending on your specific crash details.
Settlements can be beneficial for truck accident victims and their families because they can achieve finality and can also include terms that may prevent similar crashes in the future. For example, in a wrongful death claim following an underride crash, plaintiffs may negotiate terms where the trucking company installs side underride guards on their trailers.
Negotiated terms may also include things like changes to hiring, training, and other policies, donations to certain safety groups, prohibiting vehicle maintenance from being performed by a certain mechanical shop/vendor, etc.
What are The Advantages of a Truck Accident Settlement?
Control Over the Outcome
Parties have more control over settlement terms, allowing them to tailor the agreement to their specific needs.
Working with an experienced truck accident attorney to establish your legal goals will help you determine if a settlement makes sense for you and your family and what those settlement terms should include.
Time and Cost Savings
In most cases, achieving a resolution through settlement is a faster process than taking a truck accident case to trial, which can include a post-trial appeals process. For truck accident victims who are grieving and learning to cope with their new normal, an adequate settlement may lessen the time for resolution.
Privacy and Confidentiality
Settlements provide a chance to maintain privacy, which can be crucial for families coping with traumatic loss. However, it's important to remember that anonymity may come at the cost of true justice.
Defense lawyers are aware that grieving families value privacy and may use this to their advantage to negotiate confidentiality terms that shield them from accountability and/or prevent truck crash victims from sharing their stories.
This suppression then makes it more difficult for safety advocates to point to a pattern of unsafe behavior, which, in turn, slows or halts the ability to advance truck safety –something that can be essential to preventing similar tragedies from happening in the future.
As a truck crash victim or family member, it's important to understand the short-term and long-term effects of your settlement terms and to weigh the benefits of privacy against the potential consequences for justice.
Lower Risk
If your trucking case goes to trial, there is a possibility that the jury may not return a favorable verdict. Of course, having an experienced truck accident attorney with a proven trial record advocating for your rights can reduce this risk, but the final outcome of your case --including liabilityLegal responsibility for one's acts or omissions. In negligence cases, liability includes proving negligence (see definition or hyperlink), proving causation (see definition), and resulting damages (see definition or hyperlink). and its case value -- is ultimately in the hands of a judge or jury.
Settlements, by contrast, are based on mutually agreed-upon terms. This means that whatever the parties involved agree to, financially, is what will be returned to you. This sense of stability can be a source of comfort to those who have experienced tragedy and are now facing financial difficulties because of their truck accident.
What Are the Limitations of a Truck Accident Settlement?
Potential for Less Compensation
When it comes to resolving legal disputes, jury trials involve risk but they also carry the potential for jurors to render full and complete justice through their verdicts. Settlements may result in lower compensation than what could be obtained through a verdict.
Take, for example, The Law Firm for Truck Safety’s recent case where a young man’s life was taken in a broadside crash on a Michigan roadway. The defense's final settlement offer to the young man’s family was $450,000. However, thanks to the advocacy of The Law Firm for Truck Safety’s Michael Leizerman, the jury returned a verdict of $18.5 million for the surviving family.
Inability to Set Legal Precedent
Settlements do not establish legal precedent since they are typically specific to the parties involved and the particular circumstances of the case, and do not involve any judicial ruling or mandate.
Limited Acknowledgment of Wrongdoing
In settlement agreements, the defense may push for clauses that downplay or deny any wrongdoing on their part. However, for some families seeking justice, these clauses undermine the reason they filed a truck crash injury claim in the first place: to hold the responsible parties accountable.
To ensure that negligent parties are held fully accountable, it's best to work with a reputable trucking law firm like The Law Firm for Truck Safety that will work with you to fully hold negligent parties accountable and help you achieve justice on your terms.
Referrals & Co-Counsel
Involved in a Crash?
No other law firm knows trucks quite like us. Our trucking law expertise and trial experience allow us to win multi-million-dollar results year after year.
Our team of truck accident attorneys works tirelessly to help your family find justice in the wake of a catastrophic truck crash.
Referrals & Co-Counsel
No other law firm knows trucks quite like us. Our trucking law expertise and trial experience allow us to win multi-million-dollar results year after year.
Involved in a Crash?
Our team of truck accident attorneys works tirelessly to help your family find justice in the wake of a catastrophic truck crash.
What is a Verdict?
A verdict is a decision rendered by a judge or jury at the conclusion of a trial. It is the outcome of a legal case that has been presented in court. In trial, evidence and arguments are weighed and a resolution is made by a judge or jury based on the applicable laws and regulations.
Unlike settlements, verdicts are always public record.
How are Verdicts Reached?
The process of reaching a verdict involves presenting evidence, witnessAny person who provides testimony in a trial. This includes, but is not limited to, eyewitnesses. testimonies, and legal arguments in court through a trial. The judge or jury then deliberates on everything they have heard and renders a decision. This decision is called a verdict.
What are the Advantages of a Trucking Trial Verdict?
Public Accountability
For those coping with tremendous loss, a verdict can serve to validate the pain and suffering they have endured at the hands of a negligent truck driver, motor carrier, broker, or other responsible partyA participant in a lawsuit. In a civil lawsuit, the party who sues is the plaintiff and the party being sued is the defendant..
For truck crash victims, the compensation awarded by a jury can also serve as the public’s acknowledgment of all that was taken from them because of their crash. For some, this public accountability empowers them with the tools needed to heal and move forward.
Potential for Setting a Legal Precedent
Because verdicts are public record, the facts of the case and subsequent wrongdoing are available for all to see. Further, post-trial appeals of issues of fact and law, to higher courts can be taken. The resolution of these appeals can result in legal precedent that shapes the law surrounding truck accident lawsuits.
In this way, verdicts can be particularly helpful in facilitating change in the long term. Not just because a successful verdict can lead to meaningful and measurable change or clarification in the law, but because verdicts can be used as a basis or reference for similar case outcomes in the future. This sends a message to policymakers within the trucking industry, that, should they be involved in a similar crash, they could be facing similar consequences or worse.
Furthermore, verdicts in and of themselves can serve as an incentive for trucking companies to change their policies on things like underride guards, the use of certain truck equipment manufacturers, hiring and training policies, and the like.
What are the Limitations of a Verdict?
Unpredictable Outcomes
The outcome of a verdict can be uncertain due to various factors, including the presentation of evidence, the skill of the attorneys, and the decision-making of the judge or jury. This is why it’s critical to ensure your truck crash lawsuit is represented by knowledgeable and experienced trucking lawyers with trial experience to maximize the potential for favorable outcomes in your case.
Time-Consuming and Expensive Litigation
Truck accident trials can be lengthy, complex, and costly. They involve extensive preparation, courtroom proceedings, and expert witness fees.
Emotionally Taxing
Even though you stand to gain larger case results by taking your case to trial, you may be paying for it mentally and emotionally. Trial verdicts are also open to appeal, which can delay total case resolution and prolong the ability to feel like justice is fully served.
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What are the Key Differences Between Settlements and Verdicts?
1. Resolution Process
Settlements are negotiation-based contracts achieved outside of a courtroom, while verdicts are court-based decisions rendered at the end of a trial.
2. Risk vs. Control Over the Outcome
Settlements provide more control to the parties involved, allowing them to shape the terms of the agreement. In contrast, verdicts are determined by a judge or jury, where arguments from the parties are considered and taken into account.
3. Emotional Bandwidth
Filing a truck accident case will always be a challenging and emotional experience. It may require you to revisit some of the most difficult moments in your life. Seeing your case to trial can be especially emotionally demanding and time-consuming. While pursuing a trial may be necessary for justice, it may not be the right choice for everyone. Your truck accident attorney is there to provide you with support and guidance throughout the legal process, ensuring that you make the best decision for you.
4. Legal Implications
Settlements cannot establish legal precedents and defense will often work to limit the public’s awareness of the specific case details and the parties involved. Verdicts, on the other hand, because they are public record, and because of their potential for appeal, can help set legal precedents that then can be used as compensation references in similar cases. Verdicts can also influence decision-makers in the trucking industry to make policy changes to advance truck safety, for fear of finding themselves defending a similar truck crash case.
5. Confidentiality vs. Accountability
Settlements can often offer privacy to truck crash victims while they grieve, which can be comforting, but most settlement agreements will limit what a truck crash victim can and can’t share about the details of their crash. This risk of censorship via settlement might not allow the level of catharsis or accountability truck crash victims need in order to feel like justice has been truly served.
Conclusion
Understanding the distinction between settlements and verdicts is crucial when navigating the legal landscape. Settlements provide control, time savings, and privacy, but may not establish legal precedent or provide the catharsis needed for families to heal and move forward.
On the other hand, verdicts can offer validation, the potential for legal precedent, and public accountability. But they are costly, both emotionally and financially, as well as involve more risk.
Whether you opt for a settlement or wish for your truck crash case to go to trial, consulting with an experienced truck crash attorney can help ensure your voice is heard and that your legal goals are met through litigation.
If you’re seeking justice for a truck crash, professional legal advice is vital to ensure you achieve the best outcome for your truck accident case.
