Plaintiffs’ settlements fund the very litigation that produces them.

Evidence

Schlichtmann called the families together. On a Saturday morning at his office, they readily approved the Unifirst settlement, and they further agreed, at Schlichtmann’s suggestion, to use the first cash payment to finance the Woburn case. This money was important. Schlichtmann and his partners had made a million dollars from the Carney case, but they’d already spent most of that. Everyone in the office, from Kathy Boyer down to the cleaning lady, had gotten a big bonus. Schlichtmann had renovated his apartment and bought the new Porsche, and Conway and Crowley had each bought large houses in the suburbs. But all of that was petty cash compared with the real expense facing the firm. The Woburn case, Schlichtmann knew, had begun in earnest. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 714

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: in contingency litigation, a side settlement becomes the venture capital for the main case — clients’ compensation is reinvested in their own lawsuit.
• XREF: connects to: Corporate defendants fear settlements will invite copycat lawsuits, not just cost money — Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, 2594; Lawyers should prefer workable settlements over laying foundations for lawsuits — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 3395

Broader Connections

• Corporate defendants fear settlements will invite copycat lawsuits, not just cost money #expands (0.85) — Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, 2594
• Lawyers should prefer workable settlements over laying foundations for lawsuits #complicates (0.75) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 3395