Personal financial ruin drives plaintiffs’ lawyers toward settlement more than legal merit does.

Evidence

Conway had told her the truth—the case wasn’t going to settle, they were going to trial. She was furious, mostly at Schlichtmann, whom she held responsible for their penurious state, but also at her husband for having risked their home. Conway left for work beset by images of crushing debt, the law firm in collapse, his house repossessed by the bank, his wife and children on the street. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2739

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the earlier chapter material on Schlichtmann’s firm financing the Woburn case out of pocket and the contingency-fee economics that put partners’ homes at risk. — connects to: Contingent fees can create attorney-client conflicts over settlement versus trial. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 744