Judgment vs. Settlement: Which One is better way to end Case ?

In civil lawsuit, we sometimes find the court recommend a reconciliation or proceed a settlement session before rendering its final judgment. Why do courts rule the case like above ? Let’s take a look at PROS and CONS of Settlement/ Reconciliation.

Pros:

First, it is faster. Suffering from lawsuit for more than several months, people sometimes want to cease, finish their cases fast and wish to forget the bad memories between themselves. Considering the time and effort needed in 2nd and 3rd degrees, settlement/ reconcilation is a clearly faster way to end the dispute.

Secondly, regardless of the result of settlement/ reconciliation, both parties can save legal fees, as of attorney fees and court fees. It is clear that the parties shall pay additional fees for attorney and court when they choose to proceed the case to higher degree court by appeal. Sometimes claiming a lawsuit is like a zero-sum game.

Lastly, parties can have a in-depth communication with each other through a fair and official medium — court. Both parties should have suffered a severe confront against each other before the plaintiff choose to bring the case to court and in normal judgment closing, we cannot expect a open-minded conversation between parties because both parties have no other option to assert their claim at the end of each other’s confrontation.

Cons:

First, both parties will lose the opportunity for further argument on the disputed issues in court. The 3-stage trial system lets both parties to proceed thorough arguments on disputed issue. In settlement/ reconciliation, however, both parties can have only limited time before the final and binding result. Considering above limitations, a lot of courts suggest settlement/ reconciliation at the 1st degree after enough evidence is submitted and disputed in court.

Secondly, both parties cannot secure a final judgment including court’s judgment on disputed issues. Settlement/ Reconciliation is, as the term itself implies, is like an agreement between both parties to end the dispute at a certain amount/ level. This means the court do not make further decision on disputed issues. Therefore, the final award rendered in settlement/ reconciliation only states final amount/ level both parties agreed, not including detailed judgment on disputed issues.

Lastly, settlement/ reconciliation can delay overall procedures of litigation. We remember the first pros of settlement/ reconciliation was “faster way”. This is correct only when the case is done in settlement/ reconciliation. When both parties fail to reach a settlement/ reconciliation, the court will resume normal hearing dates for judgment and this will make overall litigation procedures longer.

Considering above pros and cons of settlement/ reconciliation, both parties shall set optimized strategies for better result.