Why should I bother making a settlement offer?

• If you’ve got a “small claim” or a case that’s going to be heard at an employment tribunal, you are not usually allowed to claim your legal costs from the other side
• However, if you can demonstrate that the other side have not made proper attempts to settle the dispute before the trial, then you may be able to persuade a judge to award your costs after all
• One key mechanism for doing so if by making settlement offers, demonstrating that you have exhausted all options before trial

What costs are you normally entitled to?

The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) are a unified code of procedural rules that govern the way in which a case in court is conducted in England and Wales.

Their aim is to enable courts to deal with cases in a way that:

• Ensures parties are on equal footing
• Reduces costs
• Ensures quicker and fairer resolutions.

In an attempt to reduce the costs of court proceedings, Part 27 of the CPR prevents claimants from recovering their legal costs from the other side.

What are the exceptions to this?

However, there are some exceptions to this rule.

Over the past 20 years, one of the main aims of the CPR has been to encourage disputes to be resolved without court proceedings. It tries to achieve this by encouraging both sides to:

• Exchange all information about the claim at an early stage
• Engage in alternative dispute resolution
• And crucially, make genuine settlement offers.

Why should I make a settlement offer?

Part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules explains that if the court does not believe there was a “genuine attempt to settle the proceedings” (among other factors too), then the claimant may be awarded their legal costs.

How do I make a settlement offer?

At Calmly, our job is to ensure that your settlement offer is most likely to be considered as a “genuine attempt to settle the proceedings”.

Part 36.5 gives more detailed guidance, but to summarise, you are advised to:

• Make the offer in writing
• Make it clear to the other side that it is an offer that follows the CPR
• State whether the offer relates to the whole claim, or just a part of it.