The ideal outcome in most injury cases is a settlement. If the offered settlement covers all of your damages, then settling means getting the damages paid quicker and without the expense and hassle of trial. But what if multiple defendants are involved? Can you settle with some, or do you have to wait for all of them?
You can settle cases with multiple defendants, but each defendant usually has their own attorneys and insurance carriers and agrees to separate settlement terms. This takes careful consideration to ensure that the settlement amounts add up to a full 100% of your damages. If you cannot settle with all parties, you can settle with some but still go to trial with others.
For help with a personal injury case, work with our NYC personal injury lawyers by calling The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083.
Suing Multiple Parties
In a personal injury case, you can sue anyone or any business whose conduct caused your accident. This requires showing that they breached a legal duty they owed you, and that that caused your injuries.
In two-car collisions or slip and falls on someone’s property, there may just be one defendant – one person or business responsible for your injuries. But many cases involve more than one party that contributed to your injuries.
When you file a lawsuit and go to court, the jury can hold each party liable for their share of damages. This requires courts to assign a percentage of blame to each party. Victims can also be partially liable, and NY law simply removes their percentage of damages from the total, with no limitation on lawsuits for a high contribution.
How Settlements Work
When you settle a case, you make an agreement with the defendant to stop your lawsuit against them, give up further claims, and take the money you’ve agreed on. This essentially closes up all other avenues of getting compensation from that defendant.
When you settle with multiple parties, the default rule in New York is that the settlement affects only that defendant. This means that, unless you specifically say otherwise in the agreement, a settlement with one defendant still leaves open the chance of suing other defendants, but it is important that the language of the settlement agreement is correct.
Because of this, it is important to always have a lawyer draw up the specific terms of your settlement agreement. You should have the documents state, specifically, that this only covers claims with this defendant, and state what amounts cover what damages. For example, the settlement should say what covers your “economic damages” (medical bills, lost wages, etc.) and what covers your “non-economic damages” (pain and suffering, emotional distress, etc.).
How to Settle with Multiple Defendants
Typically, settlement with each defendant happens separately. Their insurance company and lawyers might tell you they are willing to settle while the other defendant(s) are still trying to figure out what to do with the case.
To make sure that this part of the settlement is fair, you need to consider how much your total damages are and what percentage of the blame this defendant should take. If their settlement offer fits, our lawyers can advise you to accept it.
If the offer is too low, we might go back and negotiate for a higher settlement. If their offer is well below their share of the damages, we can refuse to settle and take the case to court instead.
When one party settles, the agreement should be written so that it does not affect the claims against other defendants. This leaves negotiations open with them so that we can continue to demand their share of damages or even take them to trial.
Once we get to each defendant, the settlement values from each defendant should add up to your total damages.
Suing One Party After Settling with Another
When you sue multiple parties, normally, the jury would assign each party a percentage of fault, and they pay that share of damages. When one or more parties have already settled, you have to work their settlement amount into this calculation.
With No Settlements
When no one settles, and the jury assigns a percentage of fault to each party, that can include the defendant. Then they find the total damages, and each party pays their percentage of fault. This leaves your potential percentage unpaid.
For example, in a $100,000 case where…
- Defendant A is 25% at fault
- Defendant B is 70% at fault and
- The victim is 5% at fault…
The damages are paid like this:
- Defendant A pays $25,000
- Defendant B pays $70,000
- The victim loses the remaining $5,000.
Settlement Offset
When one or more parties settle before trial, you already have their share of the total damages. However, the amount they pay might not match exactly with the share of blame the jury assigns them.
The law in NY allows the other defendants to get an offset from your settlement based on whichever of these three values is highest:
- What the settling defendants agreed to pay you
- What the settling defendants actually paid you
- The percentage of damages the jury finds applies to the settling defendants.
“Settlement-First” Calculations
At trial, we use a “settlement-first” rule, meaning the process goes like this:
- The jury determines the total damages
- They subtract the settlement offset first
- They assign a percentage of fault to each defendant (including the defendants who settled)
- The remaining defendants pay their share of the remaining damages, with any contributory fault from the victim taken into account.
For example, if your case was worth $100,000 and Defendant A already settled for $50,000…
- The jury could find Defendants A and B each 50% at fault and make Defendant B pay the remaining $50,000.
- The jury could find Defendant A 55% at fault and Defendant B 45% at fault, leaving Defendant B to pay only $45,000.
This is why it is so important to work with a lawyer and settle for values that accurately represent each party’s share of the damages, or else you could end up missing out on damages at a later trial.
Call Our NYC Personal injury Lawyers for Help
Call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083 to get started with a free case review with our Albany, NY personal injury lawyers.