If you’ve had the opportunity to already set up a meeting with your California car accident attorney, you might have been surprised to learn that the majority of car accident cases never end up in court.

Although you still may need to file a lawsuit in order to protect your interests, many cases are resolved in settlement negotiations or in mediation well before you actually get to court.

However, you may still want to hire an experienced attorney to help you with your claim because in the event that you are unable to resolve things in settlement, you may benefit from an attorney who is experienced with the trial purpose.

One of the biggest reasons that few car accident cases go to court is that there is a big question over how a jury or a judge will determine damages. Faced with the possibility of having to pay a significantly higher amount, sometimes the defense party in a personal injury lawsuit will decide it is a better idea to gamble with the potential losses and to know the settlement number upfront.

Otherwise, going into the trial situation, they may not realize how severe the accident damages can be and this can make it very difficult to decide to move forward with litigation. The cost of going to trial for a car accident case doesn’t always add up and many insurance companies and attorneys know what a case is worth, and therefore they prefer to handle it outside of court.