The main reason why the plaintiff might settle his or her claim against the defendant for pennies on the dollar (say $10,000) is that the plaintiff would want to avoid a protracted court case.
This refers to the formal agreement to resolve a case outside of the court's jurisdiction in order to pay for damages usually and avoid a protracted court case.
Hence, we can note that the estimated damages to the plaintiff which is about $500,000 in the lifetime of the plaintiff is a large sum and might not be paid, which would make the plaintiff want an out-of-court settlement to collect a sum of about $10,000.
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