Our readers in Tennessee may not know that the vast majority of civil lawsuits, including personal injury lawsuits, do not proceed all the way to a trial in front of a judge or jury. In fact, most cases are resolved through out-of-court settlement negotiations and mediation.
If your case is solid enough, then the defendants — which, in a truck accident case, might include the truck driver and his or her employer — may start to consider from a business perspective whether or not it makes more sense to settle the case out of court. However, truck accident victims can expect truck companies to drive a hard bargain if they do want to negotiate.
Negotiating a settlement in a personal injury case based on a truck accident can involve tactics and strategies that are true in all forms of negotiations. Most importantly, you want to negotiate from a position of strength. An injured person can present a sympathetic image to a judge or jury, making a claim for financial compensation make more sense to a person who is trying to determine how the case should end based on common sense. A truck company’s attorney will know this, so the more convincing the evidence a victim has, the better.
Reaching a settlement will usually mean that the victim accepts some amount of financial compensation to end or dismiss the case, while also agreeing to keep the terms of the settlement confidential even though the truck company may not be forced to admit responsibility. Of course, every settlement is different, so Tennessee residents who may find themselves in this position would likely benefit from getting information about their options in their own unique cases.