A system and method for improving soft hand-off in a CDMA system uses mobile station location and velocity information to maintain soft hand-off legs with those cells in which the mobile station is more likely to be located. The system and method of the present invention estimates the weighted probability of the mobile station arriving in neighboring cells and produces “bias” values for those cells that the mobile station is more likely to be entering or to be located in. These bias values are used for modifying signal quality values for those cells, and for determining whether the current cell or neighbor cells are to be placed in an active set so as to establish, or maintain, soft hand-off legs. The system and method of the present invention thus chooses those cells which are more likely to be retained as soft hand-off legs and therefore reduces the overall number of soft hand-offs.