Law Practice
Mar. 18, 2021
Advocatus diaboli: Solving problems of case evaluation
Good lawyers discuss the negatives with clients; but that is tough to do with some clients at the same time as billing the hours, or with the same intensity as one touts the strengths of a case — and who counsels the counselor?
Curtis E.A. Karnow
Judge (ret.)
San Francisco County Superior Court
Judge Karnow is author of "Litigation in Practice" (2017) and current co-author of Weil & Brown et al., "California Practice Guide: Civil Procedure Before Trial" (Rutter).
In our state courts, we usually get settlement conferences at a few weeks before trial, at best. By this time, attorney fees are spent, and parties are victims of what I call the Vietnam syndrome, aka the sunk costs fallacy, bent on a settlement that at least accounts for the money they spent over the last few years, even when that has nothing to do with the likely result at trial. Attorney fees clauses in contracts might support these claims for sunk costs, but those...
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