IN one videotape, a young boy helps put up a Christmas tree. In the next, he is in a wheelchair, unable to move.

The manufacturers of a car seat put him in that chair, argues Browne Greene, the plaintiff's lawyer who recently showed the tapes to defense attorneys in a personal injury case seeking millions of dollars.

But no jury will see them, nor will they decide anyone's guilt. The tapes are designed to scare the manufacturers into settling the case--one of several tactics Greene uses to keep the other side nervous.

"Since they have the money, they have control of everything," said Greene, a partner at Greene Broillet Panish & Wheeler LLP. "You can't reach across and grab the money. You have to show the fear of God to get them."

Far from dramatic courtroom antics, settlement negotiations require knowing the difference between a good hand and a bad one. In a setting that's usually more civilized than a trial, attorneys who pound the table and demand an offer rarely get results. Settlements are more about logic than emotion.

But that doesn't mean things don't get ugly.

"It's a power play," said Gerda Govine, chief executive of G. Govine Consulting, who serves as an expert witness and mediator for employment discrimination claims. "It's about who can throw their weight around. You're saying, 'I'm the one in control. I'm the one who knows what I'm doing. And the other attorneys are making mistakes.'"

There's no way to quantify the number or dollar amount of legal settlements, since many are confidential. But those that have been disclosed periodically illustrate the huge money involved.

Last year, El Paso Natural Gas Co. paid $1.5 billion in order to settle a nationwide class of residential and business consumers alleging the company inflated prices during California's energy crisis. That's $120 million shy of this year's largest verdict award, brought against Southwestern Life Insurance Co. and others over an Alabama woman's lapsed policy.

Local settlements have not come cheap. either. Last year. Mattel Inc. settled a shareholder class action suit for $122 million, while the City of Santa Monica collected $312.8 million from a dozen oil companies accused of polluting its drinking water.