What Will My Settlement Amount Be?

Negotiating a settlement after an auto accident is a strange thing. For most people, this idea is preferable to a drawn-out courtroom battle. But on the other hand, there can be significant concerns regarding the amount of the final award. Will the ultimate award be substantially less in a settlement than it would be from a trial? And how are these settlements amounts determined?

At Smith, Feddeler & Smith, P.A., we have decades of experience helping our injured clients obtain settlement awards. Our lawyers have both negotiation and trial experience in these cases, so we know how these negotiations play out. We serve clients in Orlando, Tampa and throughout central Florida. If you have been injured, our lawyers will walk you through the process of negotiating a settlement.

What You Need To Know About The Negotiating Process

There are a few important things you need to understand about how these negotiations work:

• Anchoring: The concept of anchoring is simple. In most cases, we negotiate by offering a high number, then the other party comes back and offers something much lower. The theory of anchoring is that we should make the initial settlement offer as high as possible. By putting the price high, it “anchors” the negotiations into that general region and thus gets us a higher settlement in the end.
• Building credibility and trust: At the other end of the spectrum from anchoring is a principle of building trust and goodwill. By making an initial offer that is not outlandishly high, we let the other party know that we are willing to negotiate a reasonable amount, which can be surprisingly efficient and effective in reaching favorable settlements.
• You make the decisions: When it comes to anchoring versus building trust, or any other negotiating principle, it is critical to understand that you are in charge. In general, we find that anchoring simply doesn’t work as it alienates the other party and creates contention right from the start. But when it comes to making decisions on how to proceed, that is up to you, the client. We are here to give you the benefits of our experience and knowledge and give you good counsel, but ultimately the decision of how to proceed is yours.

For 40 years our clients have trusted our experience and knowledge in negotiating settlements to get them the compensation they need for the injuries and losses they have suffered.

Contact An Experienced Lawyer Today

A lawyer from our firm can look at your case and give you a pretty accurate range for what settlement you would get in negotiation. There is no cost to talk with our legal team about your case.

Call us at 800-200-7546 or fill out our online contact form to schedule your free initial consultation.