Litigation vs Settlement Calculator — New York

New York follows: Pure comparative — recovery proportional to fault, no bar (CPLR § 1411). In modified-51% states, a finding that you're even 51% at fault wipes out recovery completely — that turns trial into a coin flip with a zero downside. In pure-comparative states, you can recover a proportional share even at 99% fault. That single rule shifts the expected-value math by an order of magnitude.

No statutory cap on non-economic damages — NY juries return some of the largest verdicts in the country Caps directly limit the trial outcome and therefore the settlement leverage. A case with $2M in actual non-economic damages in a $250K-cap state is, for settlement purposes, worth roughly $250K — the defendant knows the ceiling. Caps are usually statutory and survive constitutional challenges, so plan around them, not against them.

33-1/3% PI cap; med-mal sliding 30/25/20/15/10% by recovery tier (Judiciary Law § 474-a). The expected-value comparison should always use net recovery, not gross — a $500,000 verdict in a 40% contingency state is $300,000 to you (before costs). The settlement offer on the table is usually quoted gross, so do the comparison apples-to-apples: deduct the contingency percentage and any unreimbursed costs from both sides.

Filing fees in New York: Supreme Court RJI fee $95 + $210 index number (varies by court). Civil cases in New Yorktypically take 12–24 months from complaint to trial — and that's before any appeal. Time has a cost: the time-value-of-money discount on a future verdict can quietly close the gap with a current offer.