Exit Strategies: Lawsuit, settlement, walk away, etc

[Music] So how are you going to get out of your lawsuit getting into a lawsuit is fairly easy as a petitioner or plaintiff if you file a lawsuit as a defendant it's served on you and there you go you find yourself in a lawsuit but getting out of a lawsuit can be a lot harder to do and basically there's three ways that you have to exit your lawsuit the first and the most common is if the parties reach a voluntary settlement agreement and a lot of times that's going to happen and make mediation or sometimes at a mandatory settlement conference at the courthouse statistically speaking something like 97 percent of all civil cases settle before trial so there's a very good chance the your case will reach a voluntary settlement at some point that doesn't mean that you're going to like everything in the settlement but you're gonna get enough out of it to agree to put down your lawsuit and be done with it and that's the number one way that you will exit your case the number two way is to actually go to trial and at some point if there isn't a voluntary settlement then you'll have to go to trial either in front of a judge or a jury and that judge or jury will make a forced decision they'll decide who wins who loses and that'll be the end of your case in most cases now the third way to leave your case is to simply walk away that's a little easier to do if you're a plaintiff or the petitioner the person who brought the lawsuit the person bringing the lawsuit always has the right to dismiss the lawsuit if they want to and kind of end it on that basis as a defendant it's a little harder to do because defendants or respondents don't have a right to simply dismiss the lawsuit but walking away from your case or feeling like well this isn't going anywhere and it's not worth the effort and there doesn't seem to be any money to go after or maybe my legal claims aren't as good as I thought they were you always as a petitioner or plaintiff have the right to dismiss your lawsuit and walk away from your case so that's the third way in which you could be done with your loss Albertson and Davidson is here to help you fight for your inheritance check out Alda law calm for our complete library of helpful legal videos and articles from your favorite California trusts and will litigation law firm Albertson and Davidson LLP.