I'd say (by experience) that about 90% of civil lawsuits, regardless of parties, are settled out of court, most before it even goes to trial, especially in provinces that have public compulsory auto insurance plans, like B.C. and Qc. Even more so in provinces that don't have civil trials by jury.
Remember that, in the vast majority of cases not involving wrongful death or injuries, you are actually dealing with insurance companies against one another, and in most of the remaining cases the party being sued is represented by an insurer.
I worked for seven years for a law firm that represented insurers almost exclusively. It may sound crass, but the insurance companies very seldom let a principled position get in the way of a settlement. We evaluate the real value of the claim, evaluate the risks for either party to the suit, come up with a percentage of risk, which we apply to the value and derive a bracket of values for settlement. We then use the risk factors for the claimant, or if we represent the claimant then the risk factors for the defendant, and the various court related "friction points" (motions, known date for trial, cost of trial, etc.) to negotiate the best possible outcome within that bracket.
Believe it or not, I would say that in the very large majority of cases, the outcome is a fair result for both parties.
