Rule 1. Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law Rule 2. Yeah, probably, but please see Rule 1.

In those types of cases, it is typically made on the decision of cash amount. If a lawyer has a 20+% cut of the financial payout, it can be more profitable to the person accepting the payout than it is to go for a larger sum, but then have to pay the lawyer.

I'm sure there are other reasons on a more technical level, but I've been witness to the above situation before, and that's all it came down to in that specific scenario.