I was involved in a two million dollar lawsuit almost 30 years ago. My firm and I were the defendants, a large NYC law firm was representing a bank that was defrauded by one of our clients.
There was a lot of activity circling around us, files were exchanged, nasty threats were made. At the end of the day, the bank had no case against us, none. They made a loan based on their own internal audit team and their numbers were not even close to the numbers on our audited financial statements from just 8 months earlier, so there was no reliance on us which destroyed their case.
Our malpractice insurance company still offered $ 100,000 to settle the case, because they said it would cost at least $ 50,000 to depose everyone. The bank accepted, so we settled for $ 100,000 when we thought we would win for sure
That's how the legal process works, that's how and why settlements are reached