Does that mean if someone gets injured and they try to file a lawsuit, the clerk laughs in their face, and tells them to go away, before the defendant incurs any costs at all?
Does it mean that the judge dismisses the case after only five figures of initial legal costs by defendant?
Does it mean probably a settlement? (And maybe the settlement is smaller because the victim did sign something?)
Does the victim signing something hardly matter, because they can show some other legal principle was in play (e.g., something involving negligence or recklessness, or some other law violated)?
Does insurance cover it, and if so, what happens to rates or the policy continuing to exist?
There's so many variables in play that it's difficult to speak universally on it. Every case is unique, there is relevant case law, different state laws, etc. Everything you said is a possibility - I would say off the cuff that it generally hinges on the scale of negligence and harm - consider these the X and Y axes of a graph where the Z axis is whether the clerk laughs at you, whether a judge dismisses it pre-trial, whether it goes to trial, if a settlement can be negotiated. Die or lose a limb? Stakes go up for sure.
Sometimes insurance will pay all the legal/settlement costs, sometimes they won't, sometimes a business will have to negotiate to avoid a rate hike (we did x, y, and z to avoid this liability and minimize the settlement) and sometimes the insurance policy does vanish.
Does that mean if someone gets injured and they try to file a lawsuit, the clerk laughs in their face, and tells them to go away, before the defendant incurs any costs at all?
Does it mean that the judge dismisses the case after only five figures of initial legal costs by defendant?
Does it mean probably a settlement? (And maybe the settlement is smaller because the victim did sign something?)
Does the victim signing something hardly matter, because they can show some other legal principle was in play (e.g., something involving negligence or recklessness, or some other law violated)?
Does insurance cover it, and if so, what happens to rates or the policy continuing to exist?
Etc.