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Naively, it seems like a settlement offer should only be legal if you have actually filed suit. Filing requires you to put your cards on the table, and opens yo
by Cushman 14y ago
Naively, it seems like a settlement offer should only be legal if you have actually filed suit. Filing requires you to put your cards on the table, and opens you up to countersuits for wasting everyone's time. Otherwise, you're essentially trying to claim support from the legal system without involving the legal system.
Is there a reason that wouldn't work out well?
- slapshot 14y agoBecause it would be nothing other than a subsidy for lawyers and a further drain on the court system. There are many thousands of disputes every day that are settled with informal settlement offers, and many hundreds that are settled with formal settlement offers. Most of these never make it to court. For example, if a tree from your yard falls into your neighbor's yard, they might have a claim against you. Instead of forcing them to file a lawsuit, you offer to pay for a new fence and landscaping to replace the stuff that got squished. (Or, the neighbor demands that you pay for the fence and landscaping instead of filing suit.) There's no reason for the neighbor to have to actually file a lawsuit against you in order for you to work out the issues. The threat of a lawsuit is always there, but making a lawyer actually fill out the paperwork and pay the filing fees is a pure subsidy to lawyers.
- fleitz 14y agoIt depends on how the matter is worded, if you ask for 20K not to sue it could be an issue of barratry and extortion. If you ask for 20K to settle the matter and one of the terms is that both parties agree never to sue each other over the matter then it's an offer of settlement. Not a lawyer, but that's my crude understanding.