Unfortunately true - there is a lack of experienced trial attorneys. The flip side of that is an inexperienced attorney may have been hoping to scare up some money with a demand and not have properly advised their client of the costs of litigating a case and the risks of losing. They may not go forward with the lawsuit after all especially if they are not willing to advance the costs for their client and take the risk. (Our courts are trying out a 6 man jury fast track system to encourage more attorneys to try cases. Not sure if it's working. Mandatory arbitration sort of killed the chance to train on smaller cases.

How interesting. So if my lawyer lacks trial experience and his intention was to go for the quick "slam dunk" settlement then I shouldn't be surprised if this defendant calls bluff and my lawyer who is working on contingency drops me when the time comes to file the suit? Yikes.

Yes, your lawyer could drop your suit. On the other hand they may file and go forward but not know what they are in for and may not have the funds to properly fund the suit, and may not have the experience to be effective in the trial. On the other hand you may have a brilliant lawyer that does an excellent job. All you can do is sit down and talk to your lawyer about the case. You can always talk to another lawyer to get a second opinion on the case, although you should probably expect to pay for the second lawyers time. There are some lawyers in town that specialize in child abuse and sexual abuse cases. You can probably figure out who they are by googling some key words since these cases often end up in the news.