A settlement offer or offer to settle is a term used in a civil lawsuit to describe a communication from one party to the other suggesting a settlement - an agreement to end the lawsuit before a judgment is rendered.
Attorneys typically negotiate terms of a settlement on behalf of their clients, so a settlement offer is usually conveyed by one party's attorney directly to the other party's attorney.
In the English Law, Part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules governs this area.
In the US, evidence of settlement discussions generally, and of settlement offers specifically, is generally inadmissible in court. This is a policy-based exclusion, intended to encourage the settlement of cases out of court, thus freeing up the resources of the court system.
In Australia and the United Kingdom, offers of settlement may be called Calderbank Offers, Calderbank Letters and Offers of Compromise and often have a major impact on the allocation, by courts, of legal costs between parties.
Famous quotes containing the words settlement and/or offer:
“The Puritans, to keep the remembrance of their unity one with another, and of their peaceful compact with the Indians, named their forest settlement CONCORD.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Give a scientist a problem and he will probably provide a solution; historians and sociologists, by contrast, can offer only opinions. Ask a dozen chemists the composition of an organic compound such as methane, and within a short time all twelve will have come up with the same solution of CH4. Ask, however, a dozen economists or sociologists to provide policies to reduce unemployment or the level of crime and twelve widely differing opinions are likely to be offered.”
—Derek Gjertsen, British scientist, author. Science and Philosophy: Past and Present, ch. 3, Penguin (1989)