Harold, I'm well aware of your views of lawyers and well aware that you like to rant about your hatred of lawyers every chance you get. You are entitled to your views about lawyers, misguided though some of them are. You don't have a good grasp of how lawyers evaluate cases nor how they determine which cases are worth going to trial. That's not surprising. You are not a lawyer and have never been one. You've been a contractor for the last 30 years. You have very little knowledge of the law and what lawyers do, and it shows in your posts. But still, you are entitled to your opinion and to rant to about lawyers if you like. But I won't go down that road with you and derail this thread.

My only point here has been simple: the OP doesn't necessarily have to wait until the eve of trial to get the best deal the insurance company has to offer. The insurance company is going have a pretty good idea if the lawyer is one who will take the case to trial or not before the eve of trial. The OP may well get a good offer well before then, and if he gets that offer, he ought to take while it's on the table. His lawyer will advise him on the whether the offer is worth taking or not.