Settlements are essentially an agreement that put an end to the dispute between the two parties. A settlement is only reached when both parties, the plaintiff and the defendant, meet in the middle and fulfil each other's demands. For plenty of reasons, firms that provide legal services in Dubai advise the plaintiff and the defendant to settle.

There are many reasons as to why lawyers advise plaintiffs and defendants to settle. Let’s understand this point of view in a little more detail.

• Settlements help you stay in dialogue

Why go to trial when you can talk and solve the matter? Why waste so much time and energy? Settlements allow you to stay in dialogue with the other party and hence, allows you to convince the other party to meet your demands without having to go through a legal trial.

• Settlements save you money

If you are a victim of financial advisory fraud in Dubai, you have already lost a good amount of money. Why lose more? Trials are expensive as they come with many monetary obligations such as court fees and lawyer fees. Not to mention the miscellaneous expenses, such as translating and legalising documents, hiring experts, etc, that crop up from time to time.

• Settlements save you time

Given the amount of stress you go through as a victim of a financial fraud, you just want to get over the incident and deal with the damages it has dealt in peace. This is not possible if you go to trial. Trials take time to complete. There is often a timelapse of several days or even weeks between hearings. Moreover, you do not even know how many hearings it may take for you to win the case.

Technically, the longer your case drags the more money your lawyer makes. However, there are two good reasons to deny a settlement offer:

• You have strong evidence

If you have ironclad evidence of the defendant’s fraud and good money, you can consider going to trial. You should only go to trial if you are sure you are going to win the case.

• You are not happy with the settlement offer

If you are not satisfied with the settlement offered by the opposite party, go to trial. If the plaintiff is accusing of things you did not do or if the defendant is not ready to properly compensate you for your damages.

Elena Schildgen, the managing partner of Meyer-Reumann & Partners, talks in detail about legal settlements in our podcast to help expats understand if they should settle or sue when they get trapped in a financial advisory fraud in Dubai – check out the episode here