In our society, where mature, thinking individuals ought to be able to go through life resolving their problems without outside interference, we believe that if we must give up a problem to someone else, we have failed. This is not true, but the perception is there, nevertheless. If you settle, you control the outcome, and to whatever extent it is significant, you will have maintained control over that part of your life that is represented by this particular challenge. Justice is nearly blind. Only you and your witnesses know what really happened a month, two months, or six months before your trial.
Memories always fade and get muddled, more so when the events are complicated.
There is a legal legend about the car crash at an intersection. Witnesses on each of the four corners tell a completely different version of the incident at the scene of the accident, and each has a strangely different version from even his or her own original story when it is related at the trial. By comparing them, someone hearing them could not even be sure the information was about the same event. Even if your witnesses remember every detail, there is no way that a judge can know all that really happened based on 15 to 30 minutes of testimony, and a quick look at all of your other evidence. At best, the verdict will be based on a mere thumbnail sketch of the whole story.