What’s the best way to determine whether a particular firm is a “settlement mill”—both during the interview process prior to accepting a position and after you’ve started working at the firm. I think I have a general idea of what qualifies, but am particularly interested in spotting early warning signs before much time is invested.

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Ask how many files each lawyer handles. 300+ prelit and 100+ lit is settlement mill territory

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Also how many trials in past year

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Asking them straight up what their percentage of cases that settle prelit v in litigation are; asking what the average size of their settlements are; how many cases are signed up each month vs how many are settled; how many attorneys are there at the firm vs how many case managers; how many cases are given on average to each associate vs how many cases are given on average to each case manager; what the average treatment plan is for their average case & what the average lifespan of a case is.

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Also, is it normal for partners/supervisors to put a lot of pressure on attorneys to settle cases? For example, when there are five days left in the month and the main partner send a blast email to all the attorneys asking the attorneys to try to get x more settlements before month end. Is that normal? It feels like a mill to me.

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I would say yes and no, just like you have a review, they have a review for ensuring numbers get out, some clients treat longer then others, some records take longer to come in, they understand to a degree, but if clients are done treating and you’re just waiting to draft a demand, it makes sense, the firm is paying x number of employees on a rolling basis plus marketing for new cases

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High turnover is a decent indicator. In addition to what other people said such as high case counts.

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As someone new to this field— what’s wrong w being a “settlement mill”? Isn’t that an easy way to make some good money? Maybe that’s just my priority right now coming from a public service job where I went to trials but was broke lol

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@associate 1 and attorney 5 settlement mill is a negative term referring to firms that will ogerwork you, fail to litigate or try cases, and seek to quickly turn over clients (pushing them around like a mill) rather than maximize client recovery. E.g. settling a case for 5k instead of properly litigating it for a year and getting 15k.

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Ask around

I haven’t heard that term before. Does it just mean they settle low in the interest of volume? Must be a state by state thing.

Honestly also - depends on how many years you have been practicing but you make great money at mills (negotiate a % of the settlement on all cases), great experience, you “see it all,” they can be oddly fun, and you work on a lot you may never see again….. I wouldn’t work at one not but starting out I did and honestly - it was great for what it was!

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