Based on a conversation (interview), account from a retired lawyer who worked on different cases.
(all names altered, but let the story convey the message)

So much of my work has been defending corporations and insurance companies. And I always think one reason that I was successful in defending corporate Insurance companies because I always try to be fair and honorable if the case has had merit. If I felt there was a question I didn’t hesitate to defend them completely. And I don’t think that works so much these days. There’s a mentality of just let them bargain quick and make it go away. The question is whether you want to fight cases that have no merit.
For many years, I was defending asbestos litigations. So I had a case for a major firm, a major company. They were sued by a man who said he had asbestos poisoning. And he did, an asbestos lung condition. He was exposed to some of their product, some roofing material or something where they used asbestos. And he wanted a lot of money. And I investigated pretty thoroughly and I found out that he had concealed the fact that he had worked for many years for Siam Chadwick, which is a famous roofing company here, which used a lot of asbestos products. The company I represented on the other hand made something else. They made roofing materials and they went wild when all the asbestos information came out. But the man had concealed that. I found it out and I had that secret information to confront him with in front of the jury.
So I was called two weeks before trial and asked whether I would come to a meeting in EastRock. Would I fly there to meet with the executives of the company and talk about whether we’re going to go to trial, jury trial or settle the case. I flew there and came to the meeting and it was early, it was a winter and it was early in the morning like 7:30 or 8:00. It was a room full of men and women. I was on one end of the table, their inside chief at the other end, and on one side were all of the executives and managers of the plant in the WestFall where the guy had worked. They were being accused of exposing their workers to asbestos, they hadn’t had any other cases. And they were very indignant and wanted to fight this right down to the wire. And the other side with the inhouse lawyers and insurance people for this major corporation that did what most companies want to do these days settle in cheap, make it go away. Particularly because if there was a loss, if the jury ruled against them, then they would have 50 more cases.
Sweet as this early morning meeting, I’m sitting there, we chit chat. Finally, one of the guys who’s come from WestFall says, ‘Let’s cut to the chase and not waste time.’ He says, ‘What do you think our chances of winning this case, if we say go to trial?’
I said 85%. They immediately got up, so the meeting’s over. I realized later it’s all about the insurance and the lawyer guys want to settle the case. They don’t take any chances. These guys say, ‘My God, we got to go to court and prove this thing.’
I get back to RiverLink. I get a phone call from Irvine from the lawyer who says, ‘You don’t know who I am. But I’m with this big national law firm. And I’m the guy who’s managing all of their asbestos cases all over the country for your client. And I called you up because I have a question.’
I say ‘What?’
He says, ‘You want to do some more and build some more hours until the day before trial. And then you’ll tell us we should settle the case. You’re just basically milking the case until it’s time to go. That’s what this is about why you said 85. So what do you think, you really believe we got an 85% chance of winning?’
I said, ‘I picked the number. Maybe not 85, maybe 80, 78, you know.’
He says, ‘Well, that’s just outrageous.’ He said, ‘I’m sure you, you’re just gonna tell us to settle, before you’re just basically milking us.’
I said, ‘Are you serious?’
And he said, ‘ Yeah, I’m serious.’
I said, ‘Fuck you’ and hung the phone up in his ear. I just said Fuck you. Go to trial, three days of trial, I get a jury verdict, I bring out the Siam Chadwick case, his lawyer didn’t even know that and the jury just threw him out. And they sent out a young lady, a young lawyer from the EastRock. In house lawyer, and she was a young lady from IdleField, they sent the lowest level person.
If they go to trial, they have to have a company lawyer. So she came and she said, ‘I’ve been sent out here to monitor this trial, because nobody else wanted to do it because they’re so afraid. They didn’t want to be tarred when you lose. So I’m not even, I wanna go shopping, you know.’
So jury’s out, come in the defence verdict. We win. First of all, the young lady runs up as soon as the judge gets up to answer, throws her arms around me, gives me a hug and says, ‘You’ve made my career. I’ll go back, I was there when they won. This is gonna make my career.’
I said, ‘Good, glad top hear it.’ Get back to the office.
The next morning, the phone rings. And the guy says, ‘You probably remember me.’ He says, ‘I’m the guy that called you and all that.’
I said, ‘Yeah, I told you Fuck you and hung up.’
‘Yeah, I call back to apologize.’ He says, ‘You got balls of brass, testicles, of brass.’ He said, ‘I couldn’t believe’ he said, ‘You said you were gonna win it and you won it. And I just called her apologize.’
I said, ‘That’s very gracious of you. And I’m sorry, I lost my temper. But I admire the fact that you picked up the phone and called me and thanked me.’
So, and the case went to the court of appeals, took a while. I think they tried, actually they turned him down. And then he tried to get the National Federal Court to take the case, from something earlier and they wouldn’t take the case. They kept trying to put the squeeze on and see if we’d write him a check. And I kept saying, ‘No, we’re not gonna write a check, we’re gonna win.’ Go to hell give me $500 or something like that to go away.