[MattinNJ]

how many thousands of these types of cases are settled out of court in order to minimize cost or prevent negative publicity?

You have no idea. I'm an insurance defense lawyer. You would be amazed at the amount of B.S lawsuits that hit my desk every day.For eaxample, I recently went to an arbitration where the plaintiff was bitten by a bat at an adventure park. I didn't get a chance to read the file until an hour before the arb. Stupid me, I assumed that there was some sort of "South American Fruit Bat exhibit" and the bat got out and went after this guy. I actually was sympathetic. No. This was a random bat attack. Apparently, there are some bats in that county and one must have gotten disoriented. There is no possible way that the park could have foreseen or prevented this attack. The ins. co. wanted me to pay him 6 grand for nuisance value. I absolutely refused. I'm yelling at the adjuster and the guy's lawyer "What if he had gotten hit in the head with a meteorite-how much would that be worth?". Eventually the adjuster called my boss who called me and told me to make the deal. I gave in, but man was I annoyed.

[robertpaulsen]

I couldn't do your job more than one day. I would have bitten the guy myself (and the adjuster and his scum-sucking lawyer).

[smiley]

...tort reform....tort reform.......

[Wayland]

How much is the filing fee in your jurisdiction?
If the plaintiff loses are the faced with paying defense costs for things like depos?

The problem you described is partly caused by poor business judgment by the insurer--it should not feed the bears.

I represent mostly plaintiffs and occasionally do some tort cases, but I would have screened out that plaintiff on the phone.

Do you think a motion for summary judgment would have ended the case?