A member poses the following questions. If you have insight into these issues, please respond to me directly at akarras@imla.org<mailto:akarras@imla.org> and I will forward your response to the member. 1. The City has a number of older 1983 cases making their way through the court system and they are engaging in either mediation or settlement conferences on their way to trial. If the officers' actions are questionable, but not definitively wrong OR the plaintiff's injuries are disproportionate to the alleged crime, the mediators are very strongly urging/negotiating settlement in amounts that are becoming increasingly difficult for their council to reconcile. The member is finding that judges are leaning hard on it and (at least at the federal level) saying to not settle is dangerous and foolhardy because cases that could go either way run the risk of extremely high damage awards and attorney fees. The member acknowledges that while some cases warrant settlement, the recurring message from these judges and mediators sounds like this: settle because anything else will be catastrophic. The member is wondering how other entities are responding to this type of urging from the court? Have any of you been successful in today's police litigation environment countering this pushback from the court or when that is not possible, at least keeping the settlement dollars to a more respectable amount? 1. Relatedly, the member has recently encountered a trend where plaintiff's attorneys are doubling, tripling, and quadrupling their coverage in cases to boost attorney fees. This is in turn being leveraged during these settlement discussions and when the City pushes back on the judge regarding attorney's fees in the context of settlement negotiations, the judge said: the standard for attorney fees is a low threshold and these fees would likely be allowed. The member would like to know if other entities are experiencing this and if so, have you come up with any solid counters for the mediators/judges? Thank you, Amanda [logo]<https://imla.org/> [facebook icon]<https://www.facebook.com/InternationalMunicipalLawyersAssociation/>[twitter icon]<https://twitter.com/imlalegal>[linkedin icon]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-municipal-lawyers-association-inc./> Amanda Karras (she/her) Executive Director / General Counsel International Municipal Lawyers Association P: (202) 466-5424 x7116 D: (202) 742-1018 51 Monroe St. Suite 404 Rockville, MD, 20850 Plan Ahead! See IMLA's upcoming events<https://imla.org/events/>, calls and programming. Check out our On-Demand webinar library<https://netforum.avectra.com/eweb/shopping/shopping.aspx?site=imla&webcode=shopping&cart=0&shopsearchCat=Merchandise&productCat=Webinar> with 100+ webinars at your fingertips!