Settling a case after a favorable verdict can be experienced as a death

Evidence

It had been five weeks since the verdict. During that time, when he feared the worst, Schlichtmann had often spoken of death, as if for him losing the case was tantamount to dying. By his lights, this settlement was a loss. But it wasn’t the end of the case, he thought at that moment. He would appeal the verdict for Beatrice, and maybe he’d win a new trial against Facher. The Woburn case wasn’t really over. He didn’t have to die yet. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2858

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: settlement as grief — the inverse of the usual narrative that settlement is relief.