Misiu: Here is why people who are innocent sometimes settle: Going to court is VERY expensive and not everyone has hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove their innocence, nor do they necessarily have weeks or months to give up their lives completely for a court case. That is also why insurance companies settle, because to spend $1 million in order to save $2 million doesn't always make sense, so settling for $100,000 may be the smarter move.

I am happy for you that you did not settle and you won, but I don't know the facts of the situation, so I cannot speak intelligently on it. I was actually accused of DUI by the police (I had not been drinking!), and it was found that the officer was using a breathalyzer that was giving false high readings ON PURPOSE. He was a bad cop. Therefore, I was INNOCENT, however, the district attorney wanted to bring a case against me anyway for wet reckless driving, and I had to settle for a dry reckless driving, even though I could PROVE WITH PHOTOS there was no way I could have been driving recklessly in a tiny garage. My lawyer told me how much it would cost to go to court, or I could just take the 20 months probation and then get it taken off of my record, which is what I did. I didn't have $50,000 to spend out of my own pocket to go to court due to a bad cop accusing me of something I did not do. Sometimes, settling makes more sense even though it hurts when you did nothing wrong.