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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 4967113" data-attributes="member: 8461">I don't understand why people keep bringing up the point that a settlement is "negotiated between the parties." As near as I can tell, that point is raised to try and somehow assert that because the defendant(s) signed off on it, they must agree that it is an appropriate amount for them to pay in response to their actions.I don't think this is true. If your only options are "bad" (a high settlement) and "worse" (an even higher figure as a result of losing a civil case), you take the "bad" option, but that doesn't mean you agree it's what should happen.If it is clear to both WotC and the defendants that WotC will win the case, and there's a good estimate of what the damages will be, then WotC can effectively set any settlement figure they want that's less than the estimated damages, and there's little negotiation that the defendants can do; when the other guy has all the cards, you can bargain exactly as much as the other guy wants to bargain, and that's it.I'm honestly not sure why you're bringing these points up. I haven't called this a fine, nor tried to use it to reverse-engineer WotC's lost profits. Others have, and others have responded to those points.I said it wasn't the best analogy.I think this is an overestimation of the position these defendants found themselves in. If you're too poor to afford a lawyer, then you likely won't even know you have these options, let alone know how to pursue them.And even if you have a lawyer, I doubt it makes much of a difference if the plaintiff has that much leverage. Yes, you can slow the process down, but a speed bump is still just a speed bump, and doesn't seriously impact the plaintiff - for example, the settlements here include the defendants paying WotC's legal fees, in addition to paying damages. That means that even if they dragged the civil suit out, it doesn't cost WotC more money, since they're just passing the cost on as part of the settlement (or, had they taken it to its conclusion, as part of the judgment in WotC's favor). Moreover, the defendants then increase the amount of money they have to pay their own lawyer for the time used pursuing these stalling tactics. In other words, the "great deal of trouble" they can dredge up amounts to little more than cutting off their nose to spite their face. If they can't win the case, there's little good that a delaying tactic will do when the opposition knows it will win, and can make you pay its costs.</blockquote>

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