Why Choose a Trial Firm for Your Virginia Personal Injury Case
Summit Law is a trial firm. If you’re researching personal injury lawyers in Virginia, you might be asking yourself: What is a trial firm? Do I even want a trial firm handling my case? What if I just want my case to settle?
Those are fair questions. Here’s the short version: when it comes to personal injury cases in Virginia, there is a significant difference between a committed trial firm and a high-volume settlement firm — and that difference shows up in the size of the offers you receive, the range of losses you’re compensated for, and the kind of attorney-client relationship you have throughout your case.
What Is a Trial Firm (and How It Differs From a Settlement Mill)
Settlement firms — sometimes called “settlement mills” — accept a high volume of cases. Their goal is to resolve as many cases as possible, in as little time as possible. Attorneys work to push the insurance company to its top pre-suit offer but rarely, if ever, recommend pursuing litigation or taking a case to trial, because of the time, cost, and risk involved.
At Summit Law, we do things differently. Our goal isn’t just to resolve as many Virginia personal injury cases as possible as quickly as possible. Our goal is to leverage real trial skills to produce life-changing outcomes for our clients — and in our experience, that approach changes what’s possible at every stage of a case.
3 Reasons to Hire a Virginia Trial Firm for Your Personal Injury Case
1. Trial Firms Maximize Lifetime Value — Not Just Quick Cash
Insurance companies put evidence into concrete “boxes” they can easily assign a number to: medical expenses, lost wages, and some arbitrary multiplier of your medical expenses for pain and suffering. If a loss you suffered is outside their boxes, they won’t offer full value for it.
Quick resolution of your case means accepting the highest number that fits inside those boxes — but in many cases, that means forfeiting compensation for things like future medical treatment, loss of earning capacity, or the full magnitude of your pain and suffering. Preparing for and going to trial gives us the opportunity to show those real harms and losses to other real people in your Virginia community who understand the value of health, safety, and family.
2. Courtroom Results Raise Settlement Offers Across All Cases
The courtroom knowledge and track record of a trial firm intimidates insurance companies and increases case value overall. Insurance companies collect and store enormous amounts of data on law firms and attorneys — including both settlements and verdicts. All of that data is part of their calculation when they make offers.
This is one of the biggest reasons law firms that regularly take cases to trial can leverage their attorneys’ litigation skills and trial results across every case they handle. When a firm litigates cases, regularly goes to trial, and gets results that beat the insurance company’s offers, insurers know those attorneys will follow through. When a firm makes a habit of just accepting the top pre-suit offer to close a file — whether or not that offer reflects real value — insurers see that the firm is unwilling to go the distance, and offers can drop across all cases.
3. Trial Firms Tell Your Story — Not Just the Insurance Company’s Numbers
At a trial firm like Summit Law, we want to build a real relationship with you as we work on your case. Cases in similar practice areas will always have similarities, but no case is exactly like yours. Your injuries and losses are unique to you and impact your life in unique ways.
Maybe you were in a car crash a few weeks after your wife had a baby and, because of the pain from your injuries, missed out on holding your baby for months you can’t get back. Maybe you sustained a concussion in your last semester of college and couldn’t finish your degree on time. Those aren’t losses the insurance company has a box for. When a settlement mill works on your case, all they really need is the information that fits inside the insurance company’s boxes — so they can push to the top pre-suit dollar.
Instead of working inside the insurance company’s system, when we prepare a case as a Virginia trial firm, we are preparing to tell your compelling story — not just to an adjuster, but to seven human beings in a jury box. At Summit Law, telling your story is a high priority, not an afterthought.
Will My Personal Injury Case Actually Go to Trial?
In reality, a relatively small percentage of personal injury cases go all the way to a jury verdict. If, during the course of representing a client, a good settlement offer is made that we believe represents a comparable result to what a judge or jury would award at trial, we will recommend you resolve your case. But to get honest advice on whether a settlement offer is comparable to what you’d get at trial, you need experienced, courtroom-tested attorneys who are in trial regularly.
| The paradox of trial firms Hiring a trial firm doesn’t mean your case will go to trial — it means the insurance company believes you’ll go to trial if pushed. That belief is often what drives the top offer. |
Frequently Asked Questions: Trial Firms and Virginia Injury Cases
What is a trial firm in personal injury law?
A trial firm is a personal injury law firm that regularly takes cases through litigation and trial rather than pushing for early settlements across the board. Trial firms typically handle fewer cases at a time and invest significant resources in each one — including expert witnesses, accident reconstruction, and trial preparation.
What is a settlement mill?
A settlement mill is a high-volume personal injury firm whose business model depends on resolving as many cases as possible, as quickly as possible, without filing suit or going to trial. Settlement mills tend to accept the top pre-suit offer to close files quickly — which can leave significant case value on the table.
Does hiring a Virginia trial firm mean my case will go to trial?
Not necessarily. Most cases still resolve before a verdict. But hiring a trial firm signals to the insurance company that you’re prepared to go the distance, which often drives larger settlement offers.
How do insurance companies decide what to offer?
Insurance companies use internal data on law firms and attorneys — past settlements, verdicts, litigation patterns — alongside case-specific factors like injuries and medical expenses. Firms known for taking cases to trial tend to command higher offers across the board.
Talk to a Virginia Trial Firm About Your Personal Injury Case
There is a substantial advantage to working with a trial firm on your Virginia personal injury case. If you or a loved one has been injured, reach out to Summit Law through our website or the contact info below. We’d love to see how we can leverage our trial skills to help you recover full value for your case.