Insurance companies and contingent fees, not courts, drive auto accident resolution

Evidence

To be sure, the overwhelming majority of accident cases, the fender-​benders, the smashed rear ends, and the whiplash injuries, were settled out of court, “adjusted,” compromised, or simply handled with a phone call and a check. The real parties in these matters were the insurance companies. But a residue of serious and contested cases remained to be handled by the personal injury bar. These lawyers, and tort lawyers in gen­ eral, worked (as we have seen) on the basis of the contingent fee—​they earned nothing if they lost the case, but if they won, they took a healthy cut (a quarter, a third, perhaps even a half). — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3855

Categorization

• XREF: Extends the reader’s existing claim that courts resolving auto accidents shifted to insurance-adjuster settlement, tying to contingent-fee practice and the earlier elite-bar disdain. — connects to: Contingent fees dominate accident and product-injury civil litigation; Risk and expense of trial drive both sides toward settlement — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 361

Broader Connections

• Contingent fees dominate accident and product-injury civil litigation #corroborates (0.85)
• Risk and expense of trial drive both sides toward settlement #expands (0.80) — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 361