Litigation and Settlement: An Empirical Approach

Litigants in civil lawsuits involving monetary damages often find an out-of-court settlement preferable to a trial. Most theoretical models of settlement choice employ an expected-utility-maximizing framework that emphasizes the importance of risk preferences, litigation costs, and the distribution of trial awards. An empirical model of settlement choice is used to examine whether the variables prominent in the theoretical literature are statistically useful in explaining the occurrence and monetary value of settlements. Estimates from a sample of civil filings provide new empirical evidence of how the legal system affects the behavior of litigants during the settlement process.