Recently, a plaintiff agreed to settle its breach of contract claim against our client shortly after receiving our answer & counterclaim - for merely pennies on the dollar.
Sometimes, plaintiffs in a breach of contract claim don't anticipate the following:
1) that the defendant will actually respond;
2) that the defendant will fight back;
3) that the defenses (and counterclaims) might actually have some teeth;
4) that if they are intent on pursuing their claim, they will have to spend a significant amount of time (and money) to get there.
In this particular case, all of these factors weighed in our client's favor, as a result of which we were able to secure a nominal settlement payment by our client shortly after the case began (just over 10% of what the plaintiff sought).