Going to Court or reaching a settlement, which one is best?!

As I’ve said elsewhere on this website, taking your compensation claim to court should be viewed as a last resort. However, getting the formal court process underway is often very necessary to make the other side sit up and take notice. It sends a message, loud and clear, that they are not going to get away with it and that a day of reckoning will come.

There is, however, a massive difference between ‘going to court’, i.e. starting the process, as opposed to ending up at a trial before a judge in a year or two’s time. Fortunately, the latter is very rare; most compensation claims are resolved by the parties themselves whilst the court process is rumbling on in the background. Given the choice, a negotiated settlement wins every time.

Why is that? The most important advantage is that you, the client, remain in control during any settlement negotiations. If an agreement is reached, the case is over and you have immediate certainty. If, however, you don’t like what is being offered, you still have the option to walk away. The court process remains in place to fall back on.

It could be said that negotiations offer two bites of the cherry (reaching an agreement or pressing on to trial), although I would add that meaningful settlement negotiations are usually very successful.

On the other hand, if you end up in front of a judge and don’t like the outcome, it is very likely that the window to achieve a decent settlement was closed some time ago. A judge will decide the outcome of your compensation claim, not you and your legal team.

Court hearings are not designed to be a pleasant experience and are very stressful (including for the lawyers!). They are also very unpredictable. Some cases are won or lost because of something that happened during the court hearing that had not been on the radar before.

In summary, settle if you can when the time is right but, at the same time, starting the court process helps maintains the momentum and is the fall-back position (if required).

It is also worth remembering that, whilst it might seem contradictory, courts and judges also want cases to settle and have the power to punish parties who don’t engage in the process! It is hard to see a down-side to engaging in settlement negotiations.